Robert Gurney

ADDRESS St Albans, UK

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Read Profile and work in Spanish:

http://www.poeticas.com.ar/Directorio/Poetas_miembros/Robert_Gurney.html

Robert Gurney

Poemas a la patagonia

http://www.mdx.ac.uk/www/latin/team.htm

The Theft of the Henry Moore statue


Robert Gurney's book Luton Poems , Verulamium Press, St Albans, 2005*, has a haunting poem entitled 'Statues'. It was inspired by two things: one, the memory of a visit to the Henry Moore Foundation in Perry Green, Much Hadham and two, a comment made to Robert by the writer Juan Larrea in Córdoba, Argentina in 1972. They were discussing a poem by Larrea when Robert was surprised to hear that the poet had been in two minds about a certain line. At the time of writing the poem he could not decide whether to put "There will be a cold of visible statues" or "There will be a cold of invisible statues". The conversation was moving fast and Robert did not have the chance to ask Larrea what he meant. The two lines stayed in Robert's head over the years and then one day, recently, witnessing the sudden lifting of a mist in St Albans, their meaning became clear. One line meant that at some point in the future people will be able to see things clearly and the other that they will not. Larrea, who has been decribed as the voice of the Spanish Republic, was saying that he had not been quite sure, at the time of writing the poem, before the Spanish Civil War, which way things were going to go. On realising this, Robert penned 'Statues':

Statues

      (to Juan Larrea)

There was a cold
of invisible statues.

The mist lifted
and we saw
a gigantic woman
lying glistening
on the grass.

There was a cold
of visible statues.

El parque de Henry Moore

(a Juan Larrea)

Hacía un frío
de estatuas invisibles.

Luego la niebla
se disipó
y vimos
una mujer gigantesca
acostada en la hierba.

Hace un frío
de estatuas visibles.

(Henry Moore Foundation, Perry Green, Much Hadham, Hertfordshire, Inglaterra)

*ISBN: O-9547166-3-9
Robert Gurney is the author of Poemas a la Patagonia, 2004.
Contact: robertegurney@aol.com