John Fuller in Collaboration with David Hurn and Others to Rebuild Childhood in Times of Crisis

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This article investigates John Fuller’s poetry for adults about children through close readings of texts inspired mostly by David Hurn’s photography or commissioned by a composer. However dexterously Fuller’s work may translate the creative potential of childhood, there is no denying that it also shows deep concern about those whose lives were sacrificed too early, be they the victims of an industrial downturn, a catastrophe or war. Fuller’s lines question the codes of the poetry of witness: to what extent may a poet who wasn’t in the field to observe a crisis genuinely bear witness to the flaws of the adult world? What part—if any—can he play in rebuilding ruined lives? Once the satirist has exposed the absurdity of a collapsing system, his words might help commemorate the victims and build them a collective memory, but their political role in reshaping the world is undeniably limited. “I feel in my heart quite radical, but entirely, self-defeatingly, powerless to know how I would do anything about it”, says the poet, who nonetheless never overindulges in doomsaying. Instead, his verse never ceases to celebrate the strength of childhood by capturing children’s spontaneity and breathing their energy into life-affirming lines.