This is a selection from the author’s previous collections published over the past 15 years
This poetry affirms the vital importance of the inner life of the mind in resisting the impersonal forces which dominate contemporary life.
It has its roots in the culture of the past, with many poems inspired by writers and artists.
The author argues that we must re-learn our spiritual history, our place in nature and our place in the universe if we are to preserve our humanity.
The poems follow Edgar Allan Poe’s theory of poetry, that it should be beautiful, mysterious and tragic.
Handwriting: This collection is selected from the dozen books of poetry which Peter Whitfield
This collection is selected from the dozen books of poetry which Peter Whitfield has published in the past fifteen years. The author sees poetry as one of the last forms of creative subjective speech in a world of material things that are ever-more trivial, commercial and formulaic, and where the media tell us what to think, feel and believe. Poetry can switch all that off, and create a series of reports from the inner life, hence the book’s title, for the poems have been slowly and released from the regions of the mind which are normally silent, and carefully set down line by line over an extended period of time. They are mainly lyrical, bearing the qualities of mystery, strangeness and beauty. Others are satirical, opposing the illusions that are so prevalent in contemporary life. Many more are inspired by the art and literature of the past. Poetry can, perhaps must, break through the surface of common life and uncover its hidden dimensions. The poems collected here form a dialogue between the self and the outer world into which we are thrown. Even if they are not immediately understood, they convey a sense of being alive in a deeply-flawed, abrasive and often hostile world, from which vision and imagination can redeem us, if we will allow them to do so.
Pen to Paper
