In this varied collection two main sections – Poems and Translations – range from haiku and pithy rhymed verses to longer free-verse explorations, from epigrammatic couplets to ballads and sonnets. Topics encompass nature, art, history, music, travel and spiritual reflections. Locations move from Wales to Ireland, from France to Spain. Extracts from a haiku diary focus on politics and dreams as well as the more traditional seasons. Translations are from Welsh, French, German, and (especially) Spanish whereby racy tales of counts and princesses are narrated, or finely crafted love sonnets rendered from the work of Renaissance soldier-poet Garcilaso de la Vega.
Styles are accessible throughout, and readers with a general interest in poetry should find much to their taste. The overall title Swing High can resonate far beyond the confines of the poem to which it is attached.
Table of Contents:
Contents
Foreword 07
Part One – Poems
ON LOCATION
By the Leech-pond 10
Water-calls 11
The Cowrie Hunt 13
Cygnus Cygnus 15
Visitants 17
Beach Walk 19
A Summer Visit to Santa María's Abbey 21
At Villa San Michele 22
Ruins of Rievaulx 23
Château de Beynac – a guided tour 24
Rock of Cashel, Co. Tipperary 26
Four Ruins, and One Restored 27
THE CHANGING YEAR
Still Life (Jugful of Daffodils) 28
Mayblossoms 29
Light-bearers 30
How are the mighty... 31
A Winter Walk 32
Winter Ghazal 33
Villanelle at the Year's Turning 34
From a Haiku-Diary: Seasons 35
RESPONDING
Triumph des Willens 38
To Benvenuto Cellini 40
Barbarian Ancestry 41
Pest Control 42
Shadow Images 43
Vita Brevis 44
Velázquez in London 45
Touching the Rock 47
Poetry and Pears 49
Hands On 50
Rebecca's Ear 51
From a Haiku-Diary: Events, Travels, Dreams 52
To the Silvery Land... Ceoltóirí Ghoill 57
JE LANCE MON CHANT
Calling 59
Words in Play 60
Swing High 61
Elizabethan 62
Under the Sun 63
Nocturne 64
Oiseau de Passage 65
UNFURLING WINTER'S TRUTH
An Advent Trail... 66
Advent haiku 67
At the Solstice: Scanning Darkness 68
Reflection 69
Gift Wrappings 70
Ilex Sanctum 72
Haw Gifts 73
Part Two – Translations
War (Hedd Wyn) 76
Aneirin (Iwan Llwyd) 77
Ma Bro (Jeanne Bluteau) 78
Meditative Couplets (Silesius) 79
FROM THE SPANISH
Ballads
Count Alemán 81
Count Arnaldos 83
Fair Melisenda 84
Gerineldo & the Princess 89
La Cava Florinda 92
Rosafresca 94
The Prisoner 95
Coplas 96
Sonnets:
Nine Sonnets by Garcilaso de la Vega 100
Notes 106
