02.01 magnetismo è poesia

ritratto dell'autrice

Il mondo della poesia non sembra fatto per parlare di una cosa così scientifica come i magneti e la magnetizzabilità, invece cercando attentamente si incappa in questa poesia inglese del 1991 qui l'autrice utilizza il magnetismo e i punti cardinali per rappresentare il disorientamento che prova nel non trovare il suo "vero nord".

Explaining Magnetism (1991)

Maura Dooley

Isolated here in the South, fiddling with British Rail

network charts, inhabiting the Underground plan, I learn

again how West means left and East means right.

I used to know that North was always straight ahead,

every map showed that cardinal point, a long feathered

arrow, a capital N. Whichever way I walked the land

restored itself in my own order: true North.

A compass only confused, school got in the way,

pointing at things you couldn’t see,

explaining magnetism. In order to find out

I just went straight ahead and up there,

out of sight, was never isolated but isolate.

Down here, we move as one and jump like hamsters,

onto the Circle line. The names don’t help much,

recalling that dull board game and me,

broke again, moving a top hat listlessly,

back and forth, left to right, round and round.