John Clare was far from being just a simple country poet. This recently published collection of his work shows him as both naturalist and nature writer, as well as unparalleled poet. Following Clare through this book brings back memories of being young again out exploring the countryside of my native Berkshire.
Continue reading “John Clare Rediscovered”
As dusk settles on a November evening we wait in expectation. We are about to watch one of autumn’s wildlife wonders. Such displays in the natural world offer healing and peace in our troubled human world.
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Did William Wordsworth ‘wander lonely as a cloud‘ through the Lakeland Fells? Was he the solitary poetic genius writing some of the greatest nature poetry in the English language? His sister Dorothy’s Grasmere Journal reveals a slightly different picture.
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The wonder and mystery of woods has always fascinated us. They are the stuff of fairy stories, legends and much of our English literature. Those that are left, like the New Forest (above), are ‘the guardians of our dreams of greenwood liberty of our wildwood, feral, childhood selves’. (Roger Deakins)
Continue reading “An Elegy for our Lost Woods”
A Listening Heart 