The Silence

The title poem of The Silence is a meditation on Sibelius and the thirty years he spent grappling with an eighth symphony that he eventually burned. The poem is emblematic of a broader concern with the mystery of the creative process, explored in the work of other artists but also grappled with first-hand, in the composition of poems. Death, that most emphatic of silences, is a recurring theme; but so too is the bright potentiality of the unknown, the beyond. A tribute to the late Dennis O’Driscoll is, among other things, a bold meditation on hope. Elsewhere, Greening visits the Peak District, the Ancient Egypt of Nebamun, Sibelius’s Finland, and the vanished settlements beneath Heathrow Airport.

John Greening is a longstanding reviewer for the TLS, his own work has received the Bridport Prize, the TLS Centenary Prize, and the Cholmondeley Award.