A Light Summer Dying tells the true story of a young woman’s dying from cancer – how she, her family and her community lived it through. Knowing she had just months to live, the woman herself commissioned the poem, primarily for her young sons to read in later life. I wrote the poem as witness, friend and neighbour.
The Anchorite Poems are a short series which makes reference to the words of Dame Julian of Norwich and others of her time. But is being holed up in a cell in those times not dissimilar from just being old, in these ?
Augustin doing life is a poem about an almost forgotten Robespierre whose history has been written by an almost unpublished biographer. Augustin Robespierre was the younger brother of Maximilian Robespierre, the latter of course a major figure in the French Revolution. But Augustin also played a significant part. His only biographer was the late Mary Young.
Cat Vies with Hard Drive for my Soul – Cat is the name I give to the right hand hemisphere of the human brain, Hard Drive the left. Throughout human history, the hemispheres remain separated and yet inseparable, inter-dependent and yet at odds. From ‘The Master and his Emissary,’ a book of high importance by Iain McGilchrist.
Copper Beeches is a series of poems written at different times over several decades. They pay tribute to people and a house and a life in Dorset, all dear to me. Close to the house stand two copper beech trees.
Despatches to my Gazan Son – audio with photographs – I posted this short piece when a bilingual edition of a great Turkish poem of lament for the condition of the Palestinians in Gaza was published. That poem is called in Turkish ‘Gazze Risalesi’ and its author is Cahit Koytak. I am proud of my (translator’s) part in it. The post links to the text of the English translation.
Dust – This poem begins with John Milton in the Garden of Eden and sets the Word against the Lie. Then we move on to a Dunce parade down Brexit Street, alongside Alexander Pope. Finally TS Eliot joins us to consign the whole lot to a whimper at the last
Fables and Reflections is a set of essays and parables, offering insights and survival strategies to care workers deployed at our community’s frontiers and fault-lines, in service to principles of empathy and social responsibility.
Gazze Risalesi – audio (in Turkish) with photographs – This is a recording of the voice of Turkish poet Cahit Koytak, referred to above. Here he is reading the Turkish original of his great poem. He wrote it in 2008.
My Dark Angel is a series of short poems which start with Jacob’s struggle with an angel, as described in the Book of Genesis. The poems were written at different times over several years, but the Genesis story seems to inform all of them in various ways.
Of My Neighbour the Severn is a poem in 7 parts offering some description of the River Severn. In the Spring of 2019, I came to live nearly alongside it. The river is majestic but also tumultuous. You have to tread lightly around here in case you annoy it.
Of Stone – Variations on a theme of stone, meditations from various angles. Human is not of stone, of course, but human and stone are both of dust. From a short poem by Kamil Peteraj.
Of the Hyphen (between I and Thou) is a series of poems suggested by a book by Martin Buber called ‘I and Thou’. The hyphen which connects Me to Thee is perhaps the only stable ground in the universe. But it is also hard to keep your footing on this ground. ‘Humankind cannot bear very much reality.’
Owl in Stone is a series of poems about a grey stone owl sculpted by a friend. The owl is a bad-tempered totem, guarding my door.
Parrot Addenda (Distilled Version) is a series of fifty three rhyming stanzas offers a selection from the original Parrot Addenda series of around 170 rhyming stanzas that follow the Brexit story up to Mr Johnson’s election victory in January 2019.
Parrot Addenda – a running commentary on Brexit, in verse. – A running record of Brexit developments as they staggered through from 2018 to Jan 31st 2020. It consists of around 170 short poems, modelled on a traditional Rhyme Royal stanza. Each stanza was written separately, in response to different events.
Poems for the Campaign – During the 2017 General Election campaign, I sent a poem a day to Thangam Debbonaire, MP for Bristol West, and her team. On election night, she vastly increased her majority ! Here are the poems, in the order I sent them. The campaign continues…
Poems in Memoriam in Time for Lent is a series of poems that commemorate people who played a large part in my forming but have now preceded me into the dark. A sort of portrait gallery of individuals, but also of a generation.
Reflections on Breaking is a series of meditations on the notion of breaking, most of them written just before the Millennium and having much to do with ageing.
Riding the Hyphen – three poem sequences – The sequences already feature as 3 separate links here. But they belong together too, under this common title, the image of the hyphen between I and Thou, connecting people through hard times. Might the 3 belong as a book ?
Riding the Hyphen – Video – A reading event in the Friend’s Meeting House, London – A film recording of a reading I did on the occasion of my retirement from mental health social work. The event included music and drama composed and performed by friends and colleagues of mine.
Sayings is a poem about the material power of words. Words of truth can heal and transport us, but the Lie severs, wounds, destroys. Words of truth create and sustain community. But the Lie and its creatures are the weapons of tyranny.
Shadow poems is a series of poems on the shadow each of us cast, following us wherever we go, hidden selves we can’t escape from, an aspect of selfhood and source of energy we need to make peace with. The poems were suggested by Carl Jung’s concept of the shadow.
Songs of the Carer is a series of poems of witness to the experience of carers of people with long-term mental health problems. Carer is an official title given to people – family members or neighbours – who give significant support to people disabled in some way.
Speak, Parrot – an adaptation of a 16th century poem on freedom of speech – At first this is largely a translation of a great satirical poem by John Skelton, a contemporary of Henry 8th. But slowly the caged parrot begins to speak of our own times. See above for a Youtube version with audio, text and photos. This pdf is longer.
The Going – These poems tell a woman’s story as her dementia accompanies her to the point of death. The poet seeks to stay empathically in touch with the woman concerned, but past a certain point can no longer reach.
To the Centre for Mental Health is a collection of portraits of people with mental health problems classified as severe and enduring. I had worked with the people concerned for years in a mental health community centre. The poems were written in tribute, after I had left.
Travels of the Last Emperor – This poem plays with the idea that the Last Emperor of Byzantium did not die on the walls of Constantinople after all. He just wandered off, seeking a city whose walls deserve to stay standing. And still he wanders – truth-teller, scapegoat, pilgrim.
Words on a Cliff – This post describes and then links to a poetry reading in a Norman chapel on the edge of a cliff in Studland, Dorset. It took place on a beautiful afternoon in the Autumn of 2017. There was music from Bach and from a significant number of bees.