Categories: book-review
Tags: poetry, book review
Date: 26 April 2009 15:37:31
[I meant to post this last night but technical ineptitude meant it got drafted rather than published. Here it is now - I can reassure you that I haven't been drinking wine since lunchtime, it was actually with my evening meal! :D ]
Before I start this book review, I should give the disclaimer that I don't often - with one or two honourable exceptions (Leonard Cohen, Seamus Heaney, Wilfred Owen - OK that's three, and there are probably others if I put my mind to it) - do poetry. I do do poetic, but as a rule I generally find the poetic more in good prose, or art, or music, and often find poetry itself quite difficult to get into, to relate to.
I'd read "Soil and Soul" by Alastair McIntosh before, it is the account of his activism in terms of the community buyout of the Scottish island of Eigg and the saving from developers (and environmental catastrophe) of Mt. Roineabhal on the Scottish island of Harris (where we went on honeymoon), and found it utterly inspirational - and, indeed, poetic. Alastair McIntosh speaks at Greenbelt pretty regularly (and hooray he's going to be there this year too); I've never seen him speak but have heard recordings of his talks and think he's wonderful, and will definitely be going to his talk(s) this year. So I figured that the chances are I'd find his poetry more accessible than a lot of poetry I've tried to read. Generally I'd say that was the case, although until just now I was still thinking about writing this review and saying that my favourite bit of his poetry was a line from his (prose) introduction, where he writes the wonderful line:
"Lonely, perhaps, you roam the paths of love, but not alone."
This collection is in three parts, variously titled "Departure", "Initiation" and "Return", based on the idea that these are the three elements of any great story - the hero sets out on life's journey, hits troubled times, and then returns to the community as an elder with the wisdom gained from the journey. I read the first two sections last week or so, but only had the chance to come back to the final (very short) section, "Return", now. And pretty much every poem grabbed me, spoke to me, said something about my life (I remember feeling like that about the Bible once, that hasn't happened for a while to be honest). It may be just the two-and-a-bit glasses of white wine I've just had (we normally drink red, so this has gone straight to my head!), or it might be the peculiar circumstances of life at the moment, but these last few poems moved me so much. You can see some of the poems from the collection here (I loved the Scotland one). My personal favourite poem (not on the website) was called "Good News from a Rough Year" - I will be sharing that one with HD, for sure. We have had a bit of a rough year, but over it all, we have so much to be thankful for.
For poetry-lovers AND poetry-phobics, I'd really recommend this one :)