Poems
I am not sure I am ‘A POET’ but I see poetry as word-craft as well as self-expressive
art and personal therapy.
And for me the 'therapy' works best when I am attending to the craft; I don't know
if this is the case for others, but for me the attention to getting structures,
rhythms and rhymes right forces a kind of honesty about experience. I am not sure
why this is, but venture some thoughts in Holy Ground, Chapter 6.
Only recently have I begun to consider publication. I am a member of the Poetry
Society.
I have written in three 'bouts':
- Adolescence, say 15-25 yrs: increasingly free and imagist, much influenced by Eliot,
Pound and Paul Celan.
- The poetry I wrote in my forties for what will become Reflecting Christ-Light: a
special, terse, 11 line format, exploring the liberating paradoxes of faith in a
manner influenced by the metaphysical poets such as Herbert and Donne, as well as
R. S. Thomas; perhaps this is a very ‘Anglcan’ tradition of poetry?
- Most recently, in my early fifties, I have tried to grapple with recent crises,
while also celebrating the glories of nature or the tragicomedy of life.
For examples, see this Month's Poem and this Month's
Reflection.
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