A collection of poems garnered from Jeremy Hooker's 40 years of material. It shows the development of poetry concerned with nature and history and the spirit of place; containing early, unpublished poems and some new versions of later work also.

Casgliad o gerddi wedi eu casglu o blith 40 mlynedd o ddeunydd gan Jeremy Hooker. Mae'r gyfrol yn dangos datblygiad ei farddoniaeth sy'n ymwneud â natur, hanes ac arwyddocâd ysbrydol lleoedd amrywiol; yn cynnwys cerddi cynnar heb eu cyhoeddi a fersiynau newydd o waith diweddarach yn ogystal.

His bibliography shows that Jeremy Hooker is a scholar of 20th Century Welsh writing; his poetry, however, reveals a much wider-ranging experience. The collection begins in his own ancestral heartland of chalk and flint. From the first he showed his awareness of land as a summation of present and past, which he explored imaginatively in 'Soliloquies of a Chalk Giant'. Other collections describe the ancient landscapes of the Solent Shore, Isle of Wight, Winchester and the New Forest. Later, in 'Our Lady of Europe', he engaged with Holland, Brittany, Greece and even Palestine. Only the sections ‘Under Mynydd Bach’ and ‘Imagining Wales’ specifically focus on Welsh concerns but they contain (in ‘Variations on a theme by Waldo Williams’) the revealing lines:

‘On a day when the curlew returns,
Its cry circling the moor,
Suddenly, to the man
In love with time, the whole land
Is the poem he will never write,
Birth cry, love song, threnody
Woven in voices of the living
And voices of the dead.'

This poem also illustrates another feature of Hooker's poetry, as very many refer to and are dedicated to fellow artists of all kinds, across European culture, as well as explicit tributes to family and friends. He has an artist's and a sculptor's eye: exploring the capturing of both surface detail and underlying, essential form. He constantly returns to scenes and subjects, striving for the exact truth of the moment while revolving profound questions.

Although his approach and preoccupations remain constant throughout, the collection does show changes of style. The earlier, denser poems are followed (in ‘Adamah’) by delicate, almost Haiku-like verses while his latest (‘Arnold's Wood’) is so casual it feels more like 'work in progress'. Indeed, some of the poems have a sketchiness which does seem more 'notes towards a poem' than the finished article but this is perhaps a result of his very aphoristic style. Personally, I would have appreciated some explanatory notes at the end on the more obscure references and dedications.

His delicate, patient quest is exemplified in ‘For Quickness’:

‘Why should seeing be painful unless one is possessive, wanting to see all? It is feeling with, feeling into, that respects the other.
Distance makes this possible. There is no other way of coming close.’

Caroline Clark

It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgment should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council.

Gellir defnyddio'r adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar www.gwales.com, trwy ganiatâd Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru.