Poetics

Kindle books

a larger land cover
Poems from 2019 and 2021

…it was all-important to rid the mind of [the ego’s] crushing tyranny.” – Paul Brunton, Instructions for Spiritual Living.

This little book of 21 poems looks at our (perhaps unconscious) desire to find another locus for ourselves, a land larger than that afforded by the ego; a land we can safely operate from and where our inner world is more at peace.

Some of the poems are written as reflections on dreams and contemplative experiences. Other poems are from the placards, cerebria folio (2021) and from the dream tales folio (2019).

tastes of cerebria cover
Image & Text 2020 – 2021

In this little book I offer tastes of the imaginal realm of cerebria. This is a realm I’ve been exploring since the beginning of 2020. (You can find out more about the realm here.)

The book consists of 21 image and text pairs, exploring the caterpillar, the three visiting voids, the sailors of cerebria and their songs and devotional actions.

The selection is taken from the two folios postcards from cerebria and tales from cerebria.

I hope the book offers what it says – a small taste of the mysteries of this realm.

Nowhere Else Cover
Poems 2012

This is a chapbook of 52 very short poetic texts about nature, and about presence.

The poems were distilled from a period of careful observation of nature and of the world in general, and were influenced by the crazy world of the wonderful Zen poet Ikkyu (see his Crow With No Mouth).

mirror facing mirror
nowhere else
– Ikkyu

The cover image is from Guluga, a mountain near the South Coast of NSW Australia, and sacred to the Yuin Aboriginal people.

The Rains That Fall Around Here
Poems 2003 – 2009

39 poems that speak of rain, of wind, of lands and of sea – and of the spirit.

…the power of that persistent upward force within us…” – Eknath Easwaran

In late 2020 I looked once more at this set of poems, that I wrote and deliberated upon during the period 2003 – 2009, and decided that they’ve retained their power and I should publish them.

I’m thinking of this power as like an updraft of wind – the spirit. It’s there strongly for me in the poem valley, wind, and in another way in the poem the rains that fall around here.

The poem something in a drawer appeared in Blue Dog, Volume 7, Number 13.

I hope that something of this power comes through these poems to you too, the reader.