John Baker’s Blog

In this 1957 film by Ingmar Bergman, a Knight (Max von Sydow with bleached hair) returning from the crusades is shadowed by the figure of Death.
The Seventh Seal has been considered one of the masterpieces of cinema for a long time. But I wondered if I would find it a little embarrassing, its imagery comical, [...]

What phases are involved in the creation of a text?
For me, there is an element of the pursuit of the origin of the golden eggs in the analysis of the creative process of poetry. Much of it is mysterious, seemingly self-generating & self-impelling, & I am hesitant about examining the mechanics by which it comes [...]

Sunset
Slowly the west reaches for clothes of new colours
which it passes to a row of ancient trees.
You look, and soon these two worlds both leave you,
one part climbs toward heaven, one sinks to earth,
leaving you, not really belonging to either,
not so helplessly dark as that house that is silent,
not so unswervingly given to the [...]