Jack Lindsay

COURAGE

I can be brave alone.
Once conquer the sweet need
of crazy tenderness
and it is easy, more or less.
That is why Beethoven was so brave
despite the dropsy splashing from his belly
into his fingertips
but never mingling with the blood of music.
This is my latest excuse.
I am a coward now
because I look at you
and think of grocers and menstruation,
but in a little while I also
will be sitting dazed
among the brazen swords; and then
I shall rise up alone, and brave.

SOURCE: Lindsay, Jack. Collected Poems, illustrated by Helen Lindsay. Lake Forest, IL: The Cheiron Press, 1981. xvi, 605 p., [40] leaves of plates. Signed. Copy #31. “Courage” (written in period 1926-1930): p. 148.

A Checklist of Jack Lindsay's Books
Includes all of the following Lindsay links & more

Collected Poems [Section Headnotes] by Jack Lindsay

"The Poet explains the Situation to Los and Elza-Enitharmon" by Jack Lindsay

Jack Lindsay and British Poetry in the 1930s by Adrian Caesar

British Marxism in Philosophy, Science, and Culture Before the New Left:
Essential Historical Surveys

Marx and Marxism Web Guide

Offsite Links:

Jack Lindsay - Wikipedia

Papers of Jack Lindsay (1900-1990) (MS 7168, National Library of Australia)

The Origins of Alchemy in Graeco-Roman Egypt by Jack Lindsay
Poem To Marie Delcourt-Curvers [HMTL]
To Marie Delcourt-Curvers [pdf file]
The First and Concluding Chapters