John Berger on tenderness, the dead, freedom, bikes (with Michael Silverblatt)

sdeslimbes
sdeslimbes
31,378
0
Published 2013-04-06
Conversation with Michael Silverblatt (Lannan Foundation).

The original clip:
   • John Berger and Michael Silverblatt -...  

The poem :

Self-Portrait 1914-18

It seems now that I was so near to that war.
I was born eight years after it ended
When the General Strike had been defeated.

Yet I was born by Very Light and shrapnel
On duck boards
Among limbs without bodies.

I was born of the look of the dead
Swaddled in mustard gas
And fed in a dugout.

I was the groundless hope of survival
With mud between finger and thumb
Born near Abbeville.

I lived the first year of my life
Between the leaves of a pocket bible
Stuffed in a khaki haversack.

I lived the second year of my life
With three photos of a woman
Kept in a standard issue army paybook.
In the third year of my life
At 11 a.m. on November 11th 1918
I became all that was conceivable.

Before I could see
Before I could cry out
Before I could go hungry

I was the world fit for heroes to live in.
All Comments (20)
  • @hayleyanna2625
    I have just discovered this wonderful man. Such beautiful words. 🌹
  • @pjblanken5786
    Watching this and finding out about John Berger on November 11th 2020 for the first time.
  • @zasterheffor
    Rest well, John Berger. You will always be remembered.
  • @RamSadeh
    Beautifully said. Elie Wiesel said very same thing. About the dead- and that living with them distinguishes us as "human" species. His was also a view that "tenderness' is a defiant act of choice and Freedom.
  • @sonofthesea
    This is sublime thinking and was/is such a good communicator.
  • @jfreijser
    "...the motorcycle becomes the vehicle for the operation of the soul " (Michael Silverblatt) - Yes very much so, but take into account that once you're operating the motorcycle, there arises a dual soul, your human one and the one inside the machine. They need to know each other, love each other, and become one. Then you can experience the ecstacy of riding a motorbike through the landscape...
  • @smihca
    ..only that there is not such a thing as free will or choice. Everything is consequence and therefor your 'choice' is a consequence of endless consequences (or conditions)