As you will know from previous posts the Czech Republic has always been inspirational in my writing. My latest project (although it is a project already several years old) is a poetry collection about the country and my friend Hannah Kodicek: my relationship with both and their loss.
I am currently stuck. I have a reasonable number of poems that are inspired by South Bohemia and my home there, but I have very few about Prague. And yet Prague was where I first fell in love with this country and where I first felt its inspiration. For many years now Prague has been somewhere I went through on my way to somewhere else or at best somewhere I was showing someone else around. How could I rekindle my poet's response to the city?
I decided to make a visit to the city with a view to writing, to remind myself of some of the feelings I first had when Hannah introduced me to her home city in March 1990. This is the last day of my six-day visit. And I can tell you it hasn't worked or not yet at least.
This photo above is symbolic of the task I have set myself. It is of the statue of a girl with a dove in Park Holubicka. I first stumbled upon it in 1990 and was enchanted. I was completely alone and snow nestled on her head instead of a pigeon and muffled the air. I made a point of seeking out the park a few days ago, but as you can see I was far from alone - the park benches were full of noisy people, many of them tourists, and the magic just wasn't there. I suspect I need to come either early in the morning or late in the evening to get what I am looking for. Perhaps I am looking for something that is lost. Or maybe it was simply the gloss of memory and never was. But I don't believe that, Prague's deep soul could not be so easily mislaid.
