Intellectually, I hold with atheism and science. Yet I can’t help seeking morality and meaning. I don’t want my scientific perspective to lead to nihilism. I know…
Last year, I memorised Spain, 1937 by Auden. At moments when I’m not staring at screens or books, I try to recite it in my mind. It satisfies both extremes of my agnosticism.
Auden wrote the poem, as a propaganda piece for the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. They might have been duped by the Stalinists, but you can’t fault their unironic idealism.
The poem starts with the history of civilisation, moves on to an atheist invocation of God, has a call to arms which makes me feel like poetry could be a political act after all, and ends with a vision of democratic peace. And the refrain is always, “But today, the struggle.”
You can read some of it here.
I will try to write stories inspired by the lines of this marvellous poem.
The first of them is here
Inconspicuous Creation 