I´ve had the POETRY CORNER, a small glass case, in the driveway of English Theatre Berlin for over 20 years. I place poems in there that I like, that speak to me, poems that I come across in books or newspapers or online, just one at a time.
I love reading poems and I like sharing them with others via the POETRY CORNER. For example, Emily Dickinson, Auden, W. S. Merwin, to name three masters. Or August Kleinzahler, Lucia Perillo, Matthew Sweeney – hundreds of poems over the two decades I suppose, renewed every so often, after three days or after six weeks.
Two days ago the POETRY CORNER´s glass case was broken into. Not your normal late-night vandalism but what seems to be an almost careful battering of the case just to be able to purloin the poem that was in there.
Is there any greater achievement for a poet than someone desperately wanting to steal your poem from inside a glass case?
And now I must confess I can´t remember which poem it was that was nicked …
Now, of course, it´s Carol Ann Duffy´s STEALING that´s in there.
Günther Grosser