Ungovernable Forces, by Michael Loveday

Ioánnina, by Edward Lear (England) 1857

Ungovernable Forces 

Edward Lear, Ioánnina, 6th November 1848

A letter’s wilful invitation
to chase fresh adventures --
Cairo, Sinai, Palestine 
with my friend John Cross --
and the spoilsport later season 
so unreasonable here in Epirus, 
where the climate is too bitter
to host outdoor sketching, nudge 
me on a different path: 
                                         I will defer 
completion of this tour 
until the spring sun warms
my painting hand, and these surly rains 
skulk into hiding with their coldness. 
What’s more — Charles Church, 
my wandering companion, 
whom cholera and quarantine 
kept from me three months ago, 
is now nearby, our fellowship rekindled. 

But there are further convoluted logics
for diversion: the published whims 
and quirks of steamboat timetables. 
And worse: insatiable caprices 
within my feet, fidgeting 
so much for daily novelty 
they seem not even to be 
part of me. To the interior
of my darling ankles 
I must forward some strange 
new verses of complaint.

Michael Loveday

Author's note: "In 1848, the poet and landscape painter Edward Lear sailed from Constantinople to Saloníki (now Thessaloniki) in Northeast Greece, in order to embark upon a tour of southeastern Europe with a friend. A cholera outbreak blocked his onward route. Despite having only recently recovered from malaria, Lear decided to travel alone into Ottoman-ruled Albania, at that time a territory ravaged by conflict. His journals and landscape paintings were later published as one of the most celebrated travel books of the 19th century: Journals of a Landscape Painter in Albania, &c. (1851)."

Michael Loveday lives in Bath, England, and is the author of two books and two pamphlets/chapbooks. His debut poetry pamphlet He Said/She Said was published by HappenStance Press in 2011. His most recent book is the writing craft guide Unlocking the Novella-in-Flash: from Blank Page to Finished Manuscript (Ad Hoc Fiction, 2022), which won an Arts Council England Award and three international book awards. More information is available at: www.michaelloveday.com