39 Ways of Looking
 |
39
Ways of
Looking
ISBN
0
9541573
4 6 |
Each of the
39 poems of
the title
sequence of
this fourth
collection
stands alone
as an
account of
an
individual
experience
or
perception.
Together,
they follow
a train of
thought
which moves
through
various
forms of
uncertainty
towards
glimpses of
the
authentic.
They visit
many
different
landscapes,
including a
redwood
forest in
California,
a glacial
valley in
Iceland, a
Zen garden
in Kyoto and
a Quaker
chapel. They
also look at
the vision
of artists,
writers and
sculptors
such as
Michelangelo,
Goya,
Gauguin, Van
Gogh,
Magritte,
Victor Hugo,
Walt
Whitman,
Henry Moore
and Anthony
Gormley.
Special
attention is
given to
those who,
in
conditions
of tyranny,
preserve a
vision of
truth and
integrity –
the German
sculptor
Barlach,
Primo Levi,
Galileo,
Garcia Lorca,
Shostakovich.
Three
shorter
sequences
follow, each
of five
poems. The
first, The
Automatic
Self, looks
at the
strangely
alien
processes of
out
autonomic
nervous
system. The
second,
Night Watch,
explores the
boundaries
of illusion
and reality
within
dreams. The
third,
Worlds
Apart, shows
how
different
world views
emerge in
maps of
different
periods.
The volume
concludes
with four
atmospheric
poems on
landscape,
and with a
riddle.
Six poems
from the
collection
follow: