‘Whatever propelled them, one momentous day / they left, a speck between the ocean and the sky.’

I’m posting a poem each week on the theme of the journey, the quest, the odyssey: taken from my book Shimmering Horizons. Here’s the fifth.

If you recognise the form of this poem you might be interested to hear that I felt a sestina would convey the feeling of time being suspended in the middle of a seemingly endless voyage.

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.

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Here’s a fourth poem from my recent book on the theme of the journey, the quest, the odyssey:

This poem was originally written for a daughter as she set off on her travels. Later I included it in Shimmering Horizons – in Part III which reflects on ten legendary travellers from around the world. I’m posting one each week for a while.

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 from the book on a separate page of this blog: one poem from each of the seven parts of the book.

I am posting a poem each week from my recent book – poems on the theme of the journey, the quest, the odyssey. Here’s the third.

This poem about the great Jewish heroine is taken from Part III: Into that Silent Sea — ten poems about legendary travellers from around the world. Together they explore the emotions at different stages of a typical journey.

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.

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 am posting some of the poems from my recent collection Shimmering Horizons, and here is the second – about the famous Islamic explorer at the point of a momentous decision. The theme of the book is the journey, the quest, the odyssey.

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.

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.

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 thought I would post some of the poems from my recent collection Shimmering Horizons, and here is the first. The theme of the book is the journey, the quest, the odyssey.

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.

Others have written more profound poetry on the wickedness of Putin’s war on Ukraine.

I thought I might at least rise to the challenge of a double dactyl verse. It’s a traditional comic verse form that seems ready-made for satire:

                     Thiggery thuggery
                     Vladimir Putiny
                     Thinks all around him must
                     Wish he were gone.

                     Czar-y and Stalin-y 
                     Antediluvian 
                     Cowering at tables im-
                     possibly long.

This poem was Highly Commended in a New Zealand international competition:

This was the Caselberg Trust International Poetry Competition of 2020. I’ve tried to find a journal in Aotearoa/New Zealand that would be willing to publish it but have had no luck – so it’s time to post it here.

It was read beautifully by the Kiwi actor, writer and TV presenter Peter Hayden at the results night in Dunedin (I have a video of this) and the Caselberg Trust were most gracious in welcoming my two NZ daughters to the event.

(It’s odd: I posted this a couple of hours ago and even had one comment on it, but that first post has disappeared from WordPress and so I’ve reported to a repost)

The bluebells are back.

Their caravan pauses here;

they know this place.

© John Looker 2020

Yesterday’s walk was magical. I can now repost this annual Spring verse.

Here’s a novel post: Erika Bizzarri in Italy has responded to one of the poems in my recent book (Shimmering Horizons, Bennison Books 2021) with a poem of her own – and in this post on her own blog she sets our two poems down together and also reads them (beautifully).

So here you have two poems for Spring, one from England, the other from Italy.

CONVERSATION OF POEMS John Looker Herald of Spring  No, not the cuckoo although, yes, we fancied we heard one just now, over the field. Snowdrops …

Spring