What is the use of poetry when the world shifts underfoot? The question arises in the face of the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, with the news dominating every discussion. I shuttle between newspaper and television reports, Al Jazeera's live streaming video, messages on Twitter and Facebook, and blogs, trying to reconcile each development in this fast-changing story with Ezra Pound's definition of literature as "news that stays news." The flight of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who ruled Tunisia with an iron fist for twenty-three years; the clashes in the streets of Cairo and Alexandria, between demonstrators against the regime of Hosni Mubarak and supporters of the Egyptian strongman; the protests in Yemen, Jordan, and Syria -- a bewildering set of changes is upon the region, and the world: hardly the moment to turn to poetry for instruction.
And yet, and yet. One poet understood the dynamics of power better than most analysts, not to mention politicians, and since he spent most of his life in Alexandria it may be useful to reacquaint ourselves with the work of Constantine Cavafy (1863-1933), the Greek poet who turned his search for an enduring image of the city that for him represented the highest in human civilization into news that stays news. His external life was uneventful -- he worked as a minor civil servant in the Ministry of Public Works, he dabbled on the Egyptian stock exchange, he frequented brothels that catered to a gay clientele. But what a rich interior life he led, exploring ancient Greek and Byzantine history for sources of inspiration. An exacting craftsman, Cavafy completed 154 poems in his lifetime, which he refused to publish, preferring to print them for a small coterie of readers, thus preserving his imaginative independence.
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