As a poet I
know the sustaining and enriching quality of closeness to the natural world. I
try to observe nature as it is, cruel but also awe-inspiring in its
inter-related balance. Everything depends on everything else, as we do. Take
away a plant, you take away an insect, take away an insect you remove a bird,
etc. Agricultural practice no longer curates our world but exploits it. In my
writing I try, as the poet Charles Tomlinson does, to harvest my observations to
create poems that draw the reader into the grace, delight and reality of the
natural world. Nature is itself, and in its extraordinary and delicate balance
I see the hand of God. For me liberal values towards peace, tolerance and
dignity begin with cherishing and respecting our planet.
We have cut ourselves off from our
spiritual roots by damaging in irreparable ways the very earth on which our
lives depend. Without a spiritual sense we cannot live in the ‘peace and
dignity’ that Gladstone advocated in his 1850 speech on the Don Pacifico
affair. Without spiritual depth it is hard for us to be tolerant, to respect
the rights of others to be who they are, to live in peace and dignity. In the
Big Brother world we now inhabit where phones, computers can be hacked, Google
has its satellite eye on us, surveillance cameras are everywhere, it is not
surprising that material preoccupations, the least sustaining aspects of life,
have taken the place of spiritual reflection.
Poetry Workshops with Poem Catchers
Gill's blog
No comments:
Post a Comment