Fool

When knowledge is ours at the tap of a key, what is it were accumulating, and is it at the expense of another, more intuitive, kind of knowing? The word fool derives from the Latin follis, one of whose meanings is empty-headed person. We cant imagine such mindlessness but might it be possible that by unknowing a thing we can start to see it properly? Theres a lot the fool doesnt know otherwise they wouldnt be a fool. But can anyone be trusted to know anything? What can we be trusted to know? A certain apprehension runs through these poems; a low-level hum of discordance between inner and outer worlds, between the sceptical and the wondering mind. Ideas of belief and objective truth play out in various ways, often through lone figures, thinking aloud in a wilful kind of performance of being. Fool is Greta Stoddarts fourth collection. Her third collection Alive Alive O was published by Bloodaxe in 2015.