Fear of Verse

Fear of killers, fear of hoodlums,
Fear of smart types and of dumb ‘ns.
But it’s best not to forget
That the fear is always worse
If the thing you fear is verse.

We all live in fear. Simply impossible to go through life without fears and worries. Just as soon as one fear is dispatched, the next comes at us from around the corner, leaps out of a cupboard or lurks under the bed at night. Trying to root them out or explain them away is a hopeless endeavour. So-called fear researchers are scaredy-cats themselves, never daring to admit that their work is pointless and that fear rules supreme.
Lyric poet and lead editor of Titanic, Moritz Hürtgen has – for fear (of insignificance, poverty, prose) – written a volume of verse which doesn’t try to define or banish fear. No, Hürtgen opens himself up to beautiful, terrible fears so that he can describe them and – for a short time at least – lock them into the lyric form. A brave undertaking – will it turn out well?