I was talking to a builder
\nof bridges and asked
\nhow he built the structure
\nthat brings two warring elements
\ntogether. This was his answer.
\nWhat is a bridge?
\nA land divided, or the gap
\nbetween? Most see a unity
\nwrought through necessity
\nand compromise, mutual
\nrespect, or cohabitation.
\nBut he was interested in the space
\nseparating these two lands
\nthat perhaps are one hope.
\nAnd thinking of the vacuum
\nmade him forge a
\nrare concept, one worthy
\nof an old myth. He built
\na bridge that acknowledged
\nthe empty space.
\nTo walk that bridge
\nis to feel the swaying danger
\nof the wind and the heights,
\nthe howling drop. No one
\ncan walk the bridge without
\nrespect, holding on carefully
\nto the ropes on either side,
\naware of the beauty
\nand the depths and rocks,
\nthe pitiless desert all around.
\nIts strangest feature
\nis the gap that runs through
\nthe center. Neither half meet.
\nThe gap is for thermal expansion
\nof the tough material.
\nIt\u2019s not the two territories
\nthat deserve it, but the rage
\nand the void between.
\nThat\u2019s where history falls through.
\nWe need a new kind of bridge, not one that
\nbrings these irreconcilable
\npeoples together but that reminds
\nthem every day into what emptiness
\nthey both can fall. And there is no
\nend to that fall, not now or for
\nall of history to come. Perhaps
\nthe madness will make them
\ncreate the kind of bridge that has
\nnever been built before. Not a bridge
\nof peace, but of a terror for a world
\nin which peace can never be.<\/p>\n
________________________________________<\/p>\n
Ben Okri is a poet and novelist. He won the Booker Prize for his novel\u00a0<\/em>The Famished Road.<\/em>\u00a0His latest books of poetry are\u00a0<\/em>A Fire in My Head,\u00a0An African Elegy,\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0Mental Fight. (February 2024).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was talking to a builder
\nof bridges and asked
\nhow he built the structure
\nthat brings two warring elements
\ntogether. This was his answer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":115837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[868],"class_list":["post-254142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-format","tag-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254142"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254143,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254142\/revisions\/254143"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}