As should be apparent from the brief exerpt, this is traditional verse on traditional themes. The poems are largely set in Santiago de Chile but include more general reflections, drawing on postings to Europe, Asia and Latin America. The title piece asks the questions everyone asks in surveying their life's journey, but leaves the matter as scattered insights and generalisations: few of us have a clearly defined philosophy, only vignettes that seemed appropriate at the time. The other longer is more a statement of approaches to mineral prospection in the wilder places of the earth.
The other thirty-odd pieces
are shorter but more individual, commenting on local scenes and events from post-war perspective, on a now distant and rather kinder Britain.
Anyone who cares for
verse as it once was should enjoy them.
A free ebook in pdf format.
Brief Exerpt from Section One - Two:
The sun floods out across uneven ground;
the wall of shadows here is thick and soft
Immense, dark conifers stand linked around
what seems a wealth of darkness thrown aloft.
An iridescence glitters in the needles knit,
that glower still as though they're inward lit.
Bright fusillades of pink are in cherry trees,
for careless spring must clothe the deepest grief;
the distillates of white that winter sees
are cast as wild narcissi underneath.
Unseen the gardener's unaccounted toil
as roots must navigate the bouldery soil.
TWO
Youth's flouncing verities have proved a myth:
the world is dark, resentful, profoundly grieves.
In plumes of purple unconnected with
the sheen of rapiers tangled in the leaves,
a winter iris holds its lovely head
when all is dry, exhausted, mute and dead.
