Featured Poem: Morning Mudslinging
Marion Leibl has chosen 'Morning Mudslinging' by Erich Fried as our featured poem for today. She writes: 'Sometimes I meet the people I see every day in my dreams as well. When in dreams I have conversations with them, or something happens that upsets me or makes me happy, I cannot help but either hold it against them or feel more warmly towards them the next time I see them. There’s always a little voice in the dark recesses of my brain that says: you know very well what happened – you can pretend now that it was nothing, but we both know better. Reading this poem, I am relieved to find that I’m not the only one with this problem.
Morning Mudslinging
When I proposed love
you declined
and explained to me:
‘I just met
a nice man
in a dream
He was blind
And a German
Isn’t that funny?’
I wished you sweet dreams
and went down
to my desk
but so jealous
I was hardly ever before
___
This poem appears in Eric Fried's Love Poems, published by Calder
Publications, £11.99
Translation (c) Stuart Hood, 1991, reprinted with permission
Share
Related Articles
January’s Title Pick for Children: King of the Sky by Nicola Davies
King of the Sky is a wonderful picture book, exploring ideas of belonging and dislocation. The illustrations are muted,…
January’s Title Pick for Adults: Orbital by Samantha Harvey
In our January title pick, Orbital, we accompany six astronauts, two women and four men, from Britain, Italy, Japan, the United…
The Reader unveils new Bookshelf for 2026
The UK’s biggest Shared Reading charity today launches its 6th annual Reader Bookshelf - a carefully curated collection of stories, plays, and poems - at the start of the…