When you live on an island the sea is never far away and I often find myself, in one of the small sandy bays that form a golden necklace around Guernsey, gazing out to the horizon. The unending blueness never fails to work its salty magic to energize and enthrall me.
HORIZON
Out slowly, slowly rolls the sea
to that far edge beneath the sky
where two competing ultra blues
collide and the outreaching eye
is drawn. There lies the mystery
to which there are no keys or clues.
There, in a trembling inky script,
words run from east to west and yet
are coded, illegible.
Here on the shore, trapped in Time’s net,
I struggle but am ill-equipped
to match the code-creator’s skill
of making us desirous, fond
of vistas that are vagabond.
Click here to read about the Stone Witness book launch by Blue Ormer Publishing.
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| Photo by Ciprian Ilie |
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Back from sunny Rapallo, I'm pleased to discover that Stone Witness is selling fast and my in-box contains plenty of encouraging feedback from those who've bought a copy.
It's been particularly gratifying to receive support from fellow writers whose work I admire.
Rapallo is a small city located on Italy’s Ligurian Coast, about 15 miles south east of Genoa.
Whilst exploring, Jane and I discovered the house formerly occupied by the American poet, Ezra Pound, and also an imposing property where Irish poet, W B Yeats, lived for several years.
The launch of my latest poetry collection, Stone Witness, was a truly joyous occasion in the atmospheric surroundings of the Priaulx Library, a beautiful old building adjacent to Candie Gardens in St Peter Port.
The Priaulx is a library of the traditional style, rare nowadays: the kind that I grew up with, where books and quiet contemplation were the order of the day.
For an hour on Saturday afternoon, however, its state of quietude was disrupted when an animated group of friends and well-wishers turned up to hear Blue Ormer's founder, Steve Foote introducing my reading of some of the new poems.
I'm pleased to say that, afterwards, a large number of books were signed and we were able to head home in good spirits.
A huge thank you to those who were able to attend the launch and, of course, to Sue Laker and her colleagues at the Priaulx. For those who didn't make the launch, copies of Stone Witness can be purchased direct from Blue Ormer by clicking here.
And, finally, there are some splendid photos, taken by Ciprian Ilie, available to view when you click here.
No need to book to come to my Book Launch on Saturday, just turn up and help me celebrate the publication of Stone Witness.
Much can happen in a matter of days and a great deal more if you extend the time frame by a few weeks.
In early April, a tentative chat with Steve Foote, founder of Blue Ormer Publishing, led to my gathering together forty poems written over the past couple of years, editing them, arranging them in suitable order and writing short narratives about each selected poem.
All this, in turn, precipitated a flurry of activity from Blue Ormer Publishing that left me breathless but the end result, less than a month later, is the publication of a rather beautiful book of poetry, Stone Witness.
It’s described by the publishers as "a collection that deals with themes of love and death, old and new gods, nostalgia for a vanished age and the challenge of life in the 21st Century".
Central to the collection is the poem, Stone Witness (La Gran'mere du Chimquiere) which deals with the relationship between Guernsey's iconic granite figure and the islanders themselves.
The book also contains what I consider to be some of the best poems I’ve written and it’s encouraging to know that, whilst everything else diminishes with age, one’s writing doesn’t.
You can find out all about it at BLUE ORMER PUBLISHING.
* An abalone-type shell-fish delicacy much appreciated by Channel Islanders.
Here's a little exercise in art appreciation.
Three of the following five pictures were downloaded from the internet whilst browsing. I won't disclose the artists' names. The remaining two pictures are of a different provenance: one which you may find surprising.
Can you guess which fall into each category?
Images one, three and four were taken from the internet, having searched for 'abstract art'. Images two and five are photographs taken by my wife, Jane, of fishing-boat hulls at low tide in Bordeaux Bay.
An interesting comparison.
