We now return to John Looker’s most recent collection of poetry Shimmering Horizons (published by Bennison Books and available from Amazon). This …

Showcasing our authors – John Looker: towards the Cape of Good Hope

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This poem looks at contemporary ambitions to contact other worlds in the cosmos against the backcloth of our own history: the conquest of indigenous American civilisations by an alien European people.

I’m grateful to the editors of Moss Piglet, a literary and arts journal in Wisconsin, for publishing it in their January issue.

I’m also grateful to Tom Davis in Wisconsin who encouraged me to submit to them.

Moss Piglet, I’ve discovered, is a lively and original publication. Primarily a print journal, past issues can also be found online at https://www.krazines.com/archives.html

Showcasing our authors – John Looker: journeying through life

https://bennisonbooks.wordpress.com/2022/11/23/showcasing-our-authors-john-looker-journeying-through-life/
— Read on bennisonbooks.wordpress.com/2022/11/23/showcasing-our-authors-john-looker-journeying-through-life/

I’m most grateful to Bennison Books for publishing Shimmering Horizons, and for their continued support.

They are steadily promoting works that they have published from their different authors.

Here they are introducing my last book, reproducing its opening poem from the series about a 21st century quest.

     'In her delirium she walked again the coast
     where she was born; paddled its lagoons and creeks;'

This draws to a close the sequence of poems that I’ve been posting about legendary travellers – each poem shows its protagonist at a different stage along an archetypal journey. This one was first published by Artemis (Virginia USA).

These ten poems form Part III of Shimmering Horizons. There are extracts from other parts of the book on a dedicated page of this blog.

Shimmering Horizons was published in 2022 by Bennison Books and is available through Amazon at minimal price. In Britain it may be borrowed through public libraries from the National Poetry Library.

My poem this weekend contemplates the mystery of those travellers who set out and are never seen again.

On the surface it celebrates the astonishing journey of the West African emperor, Mansa Musa. But there was another journey made: by his predecessor who sailed out across the Atlantic:

There are more extracts from Shimmering Horizons on a dedicated page of this blog: one poem from each of the seven parts of the book. The poem above is taken from Part III: Into that Silent Sea — a celebration of ten great historic or legendary travellers from every continent of the world. I’m posting one each week for ten weeks.

Shimmering Horizons was published in 2022 by Bennison Books and is available through Amazon at minimal price. In Britain it may be borrowed through public libraries from the National Poetry Library.

“… Behind them lay the terrors of the great Atlantic crossing …”

This week’s poem from my last collection was first published in the anthology celebrating the Austin International Poetry Festival’s 25th anniversary:

There are more extracts from Shimmering Horizons on a dedicated page of this blog: one poem from each of the seven parts of the book. The poem above is taken from Part III: Into that Silent Sea — a celebration of ten great historic or legendary travellers from every continent of the world. I’m posting one each week for ten weeks.

Shimmering Horizons was published in 2022 by Bennison Books and is available through Amazon at minimal price. In Britain it may be borrowed through public libraries from the National Poetry Library.

My poem this week celebrates a legendary traveller from China’s imperial past. But it also reflects on that moment in any journey when we realise it is time to turn home:

Admiral Zheng He at the Edge of the Known World

This is taken from Part III of my book Shimmering Horizons.

There are more extracts on a dedicated page of this blog: one poem from each of the seven parts of the book.

Shimmering Horizons was published in 2022 by Bennison Books and is available through Amazon at minimal price. In Britain it may be borrowed through public libraries from the National Poetry Library.

I’m now halfway through posting ten poems from my book on the theme of the journey, the quest, the odyssey. This week’s is the sixth:

The poem above is taken from Part III: Into that Silent Sea — a meditation on legendary travellers from around the world.

Shimmering Horizons was published in 2022 by Bennison Books and is available through Amazon at minimal price. In Britain it may be borrowed through public libraries from the National Poetry Library.

There are more extracts on a dedicated page of this blog: one poem from each of the seven parts of the book.

Erika Bizzarri responded to this poem by writing her own ‘Helen of the Milk-White Arms’ and posting it here on WordPress at:

Helen of Troy