Soviet poet Vladimir Mayakovsky

This is a video of Soviet poet Vladimir Mayakovsky reciting a poem.

By Peter Cardwell in Britain:

The Revolutionary

Saturday 4th November 2017

A poem for Mayakovsky

A practitioner of Russian roulette,
Mayakovsky sits in a workaday jacket,
breast-pocket full of pens, gauge, pencil

looking like everything but a sad poet
but more what he is every day —
shaven-headed and fully employed.

So far, no bullet has entered his brain —
the lonely man he is will write
his epic poem, give heart to other Russians.

And even though Stalin thinks he is a bore,
his work will be read by the lettered —
bread and iron have made him speak.

Related articles

• Bertolt Brecht is back?and still as relevant 60 years after his death
• Hundreds gather to mark 1819 Peterloo Massacre
• Satiric poem on British Blairites by Attila the Stockbroker
• Soviet artist Alexander Rodchenko exhibition in London
• Poet Attila the Stockbroker on 1917 Russian revolution
• Art, social movements and history, exhibition