14 Comments
User's avatar
Geraldine A. V. Hughes's avatar

Wow, I admire Anna Akhmatova, I can’t imagine her pain and suffering, I only have known a comas worth about her life, loves and works, and here you are, the real deal of knowing and knowledge. Thank you, Lady Larisa

Expand full comment
What to read if's avatar

Fascinating as usual. As an adult, Gumilov reminds me a little of Rupert Brooke (not his writing, obviously)...

Expand full comment
David MacGregor's avatar

Lots family things this week

My daughter’s birthday

My mother gave me five volumes of Mark Twain

I have Huck but mislaid

Tom

Expand full comment
Larisa Rimerman's avatar

My congrats and happy birthday to your daughter! Do you still mislaid Tom?

Expand full comment
David MacGregor's avatar

Yes i never figured out what happened to my copy of Tom Sawyer. but i did like Huck Finn better and Connecticut Yankee too.

Expand full comment
Themes and Deviations's avatar

Wonderful. Always wonderful.

Expand full comment
Portia's avatar

Gumiliov's style is so different from Blok's and Esenins', but he was a great poet. A brilliant essay, Larisa!

Expand full comment
Larisa Rimerman's avatar

Thank you, Portia. G. was less known to us because he was banned, and I couldn't afford to buy his tiny book of poems on the black market for my monthly salary. But interest was enormous, and, listening to our professor about G, I interrupted her and, rather impertinent, declared that his Gyraff was better than our Soviet poets's verses.

Expand full comment
Portia's avatar

Naughty Larisa, I hope you didn't get yourself in trouble.

Expand full comment
Larisa Rimerman's avatar

Not me, but the professor turned out to be very honest at the end and was thrown out of university.

Expand full comment
Portia's avatar

What a terrible thing!

Expand full comment
David MacGregor's avatar

I look forward to reading all this again

But I was struck how your poet

Loved war, the shrapnel

The excitement

When I was briefly in Army training

I wanted the bullets to scream by me

Erupt the earth in front and around me

And I could add my own fuss

The sharp burst from the FN semi automatic

The exploding targets

Korean War hero

Says to me

Good shooting

Expand full comment
David MacGregor's avatar

welcome Larisa

Expand full comment
Larisa Rimerman's avatar

Thank you for interest in "my" poet. He loved danger; he paid for it. I like your answer in the shape of a poem.

Expand full comment