1.
Conditions
Its preferences have long been known: a village isolated by the innocence of rainfall.
2.
Alternative
Or: a town encircled by a density of night fog.
3.
Convenient Discovery
There, quite unexpectedly, The Method is able to detect an undeniable discontentment with birdsong.
4.
Development
The patent discrepancy between neighbors’ harvests will suddenly be evident for all to see.
5.
Further Developments
Musical strains too will abruptly arise: mysteriously similar to the melody of grievances once found in the ancestor’s pulse.
6.
Revelation
And by sophisticated laws known only to a few: long-familiar faces will now reflect suspect and clearly foreign views.
7.
Long-Verified Formula
From there, The Method knows: it’s only a matter of time.
8.
Pacing
Do not wonder, however, if The Method lays dormant for a while, settled in a modest village’s veins.
8.
Finesse
The Method is an art: it’s traditionally practiced with the long term in view.
9.
The Long Game
In fact, in the archives of its land-records, your name, in pencil, has been tentatively inscribed.
10.
Reminder
Never forget, despite setbacks, its success rate remains surprisingly high.
Ellen Hinsey is the author of nine books of poetry, essays, dialogue and literary translation. Her most recent volume of poetry, The Illegal Age, which explores the rise of authoritarianism, was chosen as UK's Poetry Book Society's fall 2018 Choice. Her essays on democracy in Central and Eastern Europe are collected in Mastering the Past: Reports from Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe (Telos Press, 2017). Her book-length dialogue with Lithuanian poet and dissident Tomas Venclova, Magnetic North, explores post-war culture and ethics under totalitarianism and was finalist for Lithuania's Book of the Year. Hinsey's other volumes of poetry include, Update on the Descent, which draws on her experience at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in the Hague, The White Fire of Time and Cities of Memory, which received the Yale Series in poetry Award. Her work has appeared in publications The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Irish Times, Der Tagesspiegel, and Poetry. She is currently a visiting professor at the University of Göttingen.
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Author: Ellen Hinsey
Ellen Hinsey is the author of nine books of poetry, essays, dialogue and literary translation. Her most recent volume of poetry, The Illegal Age, which explores the rise of authoritarianism, was chosen as UK's Poetry Book Society's fall 2018 Choice. Her essays on democracy in Central and Eastern Europe are collected in Mastering the Past: Reports from Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe (Telos Press, 2017). Her book-length dialogue with Lithuanian poet and dissident Tomas Venclova, Magnetic North, explores post-war culture and ethics under totalitarianism and was finalist for Lithuania's Book of the Year. Hinsey's other volumes of poetry include, Update on the Descent, which draws on her experience at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in the Hague, The White Fire of Time and Cities of Memory, which received the Yale Series in poetry Award. Her work has appeared in publications The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Irish Times, Der Tagesspiegel, and Poetry. She is currently a visiting professor at the University of Göttingen.
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