Lawrence Hall
Mhall46184@aol.com
Dispatches for the
Colonial Office
The Stray ‘Possum Café
The only comparisons in Western literature might be with the
Romantics or the Beat Generation, but the Russian Silver Age poets outdazzled
them in glamour and intrigue.
-Darran Anderson
We lay our scene not in Saint Petersburg
Where Anna Ahkmatova flirted and rhymed
With Gumilyov, Mandelstam, and Tsvetaeva
Among champagne, cigarettes, tears, and pearls
In the old and storied Stray Dog Café
But in a field on a December night
Where two opossums meet in quest of love
And wrangle in the leaves of intimacy
Poor strays making…art…without any fear
Of execution by the Kremlin Mountaineer
Saint
Petersburg’s Stray Dog Café was a matrix for art, music, dance, and poetry from
imperial Russia to the Soviet horror, and thence into the world. It almost serves as a sort of hinge between
the 19th century and the 20th. Please read Darran Anderson’s professional and thus
accessible article in City Journal: Anna
Akhmatova’s Bravery.
I
am having fun with intruding ‘possums among the Silver Age poets, but as for
them, yes, they are essential. Their brilliance still shines for us and
influences what we write even if we are unaware of them – and for that most of
them were murdered by the mad tyranny of Communism.
