just as Gawain wore the gift of the temptress's green girdle to ward off death, and I feel a bit like Miss Ireland circa 1976. Despite which, by the time I'm required to look directly into the camera and articulate a meaningful summary of the journey, I feel a strong sense of understanding and affinity. In our youth, we make bold statements of intent and set out into the unknown with every intention of fulfilling our potential and achieving our dreams. Among many other things, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is that old, old story, the journey of life, and the trials we must suffer if we are to keep our promises to the world and to ourselves.
With its deft counterpointing of polite, courtly etiquette and nature red in tooth and claw, it is also a poem that balances the humans we have become with the animals we once were. I returned home a bedraggled but wiser creature.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
from The Sunday Times: Poet on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
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