A. S. J. Tessimond: Unnoticed Poet
Today is the anniversary of the death of A.S.J. Tessimond...er….Who?! Indeed. A little bit shocked to discover this poet, born in Birkenhead in 1902. I had never heard of him. Fortunately, thanks to the internet, there's a steady trickle of growing interest in the man and his work. Painful to see this photo of him as a young man, and now he suffered bi-polar disorder & underwent several shock therapy treatments, which may have contributed to his death in 1962 of a brain hemorrhage. But his poetry lives on.
The shock of discovery spurred me on to try to find out as much as I could about him and his poetry; Indebted to this link for accessing the latter:
Day Dream is beautifully wistful, and given this period of social distancing, quite apposite.
Part of the trickle of information coming through about him was helped along by Brian Patten, fellow Liverpudlian poet, who presented a BBC Radio 4 series: 'Lost Voices' that highlighted him, 2010, and Bloodaxe, who reissued his collected poems that same year.
Poems of sweet tenderness are balanced out by stereotypical portraits of British aloofness.
'Enigma' seems to be the word that best suits man and craft.
So good to discover one of his poems: Stars May Fall in One's Hand', inspired, and was featured in a 4-minute cinematic poem made by Alex Soloviev that features the poem: 'Stars May Fall in One's Hand': https://cinematicpoems.com/tag/a-s-j-tessimond/
Much too good a poet to lose completely; his work is delightful - as in Cats:
The final tragedy, as he wrote himself, would indeed be to go unnoticed: his fear, or perhaps his long-held belief. I'm happy to shine a light on him here today, and let his work live on in this small way.
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