Humanity and Time in the Poetry of Regina Derieva

Whilst reading through Projected Letters, I noticed the selection of Derieva's poems, taken from her new book, Alien Matter. I imagine that the poems printed on the website should have been of interest to the contributors and readers casually browsing through the pages of PL. I particularly enjoyed reading through them — both in terms of their general style, and in terms of the interweaving of objects and events with an implicitly colourful understanding of history and time.

Although there are many issues relating to how conceptions of time influence Derieva's style, it could be clearly noted that there is an underlying fatalism throughout the selected poems: "'What do I have to do with it?" The grip of fate/grows tighter, steeper, closer to the pit." (Derieva, "Prior to Departure") I would immediately note that the representation of time appears to relate to several treatments of other concepts within the poetry.

The poems often address a progressive conception of time, from which one must pull oneself from and even leave behind in order to salvage the humanity of the person. The reference to the "wild wind" appears to be that of time, as progress, dragging the individual through time. It is posed against humanity since the wild wind clearly prevents one from becoming a human being: "I should remember I am a human being/ But the wild wind prevents me" (Derieva, At the Intersection). The inner tension of progress, symbolised as a wind, pulling the individual from the human situation, or "human condition," was often used by Walter Benjamin in his Theses on the Philosophy of History in order to discuss a Marxist-Judaic conception of the "angel of history." Bertolt Brecht also makes use of the image of the wind to capture the progressive (and even aggressive) nature of time, posed against the human condition: "Vain the ambition of kings/ Who seek by trophies and dead things/ To leave a living name behind/ And weave but nets to catch the wind." (Bertolt Brecht, Epilogue to The Duchess of Malfi). Unless one pulls oneself from progressive time, one will fail to save the inner-humanity of the person.