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Report from Nowhere
by Clive Wilmer
Report from Nowhere - Clive Wilmer
The word 'utopia' comes from Greek. It is usually understood as meaning either 'the good place' or 'no place' ? that is, nowhere. One of my chief heroes, William Morris, wrote a utopian romance and called it 'News from Nowhere.' So that is the source of my title here, 'Report from Nowhere'. I have been thinking lately of what the ideal community would be. It would be rural, I think, but it would also include the best features of urban life. Why not have a library in a cornfield or an art gallery in the forest? I should add that this is, quite literally a dream poem; I woke up one morning with most of it in my head. In Freud's theory, dreams are ...
The word 'utopia' comes from Greek. It is usually understood as meaning either 'the good place' or 'no place' ? that is, nowhere. One of my chief heroes, William Morris, wrote a utopian romance and called it 'News from Nowhere.' So that is the source of my title here, 'Report from Nowhere'. I have been thinking lately of what the ideal community would be. It would be rural, I think, but it would also include the best features of urban life. Why not have a library in a cornfield or an art gallery in the forest? I should add that this is, quite literally a dream poem; I woke up one morning with most of it in my head. In Freud's theory, dreams are made up of what he calls 'the dream work'. My poem talks instead about 'nightwork', which could be a variety of things.
Report from Nowhere
It is not just the sex.
It is the reflection afterwards.
– as it might be in the fields, after haymaking, the sun
spread low along the horizon, shadows bold,
and they all troop off to the pub.
And the library. And the gallery.
And bed
with nightwork in the tangles of their minds.
from New and Collected Poems (Carcanet, 2012), © Clive Wimer 2012, used by permission of the author and the publisher