Month: July 2020

To a Late Winter Morning

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Morning Herd, 1 May 2018. Copyright 2018 Forgotten Fields. All rights reserved.
Thanks to the liberty of poetic licence, this scene appears in “A Late Winter Morning”, though it was taken in mid-autumn 2018. (Facebook 360 Photo)

“A Pear Tree” is complete, and I have moved to the next sketch, “A Late Winter Morning” (originally “A Partly Cloudy Morning”). Outlined in a rough stanza eleven days after the original “A Pear Tree” sketch, it describes the countryside at sunrise as it appeared to me upon an August morning in 2018.

Incidentally, I have reverted the titles of two finished poems to my original choices: “A Walk II” (wherein I remember my first Great Dane) is once again “You and I, My Hound!”, which necessitated the removal of the Roman numeral from “A Walk I” (wherein I remember my late friend, Jacques F. Visser).

Poetry Publication Progress (2020-07-30)

Books

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The Times Concise Atlas of the World: Ninth Edition, 26 July 2020. Copyright 2020 Forgotten Fields. All rights reserved.

To Relish

Yesterday, I bought three books from my favourite second-hand bookshop1 on subjects of particular interest to me: maps, Ancient Greece and the Romanticists. I was especially pleased with the atlas2—to date, the second in my possession—which shall be a source of endless fascination (I wrote about my love for atlases in “This October”3.)

To Research

Presently, I am reading Modern Art and the Death of a Culture by H. R. Rookmaaker, which gives a Christian perspective on modern art. Though I am an atheist, I find it most insightful. After I have finished it, I shall read The First Poets: Lives of the Ancient Greek Poets—writers from a culture I hold in the highest esteem—by Michael Schmidt.

The First Poets: Lives of the Ancient Greek Poets and Wordsworth: Poetical Works, 26 July 2020. Copyright 2020 Forgotten Fields. All rights reserved.

To Recite

Wordsworth is the finest Romantic poet. Whilst I own several digital copies and one softcover of selections of his works, Wordsworth: Poetical Works “contains every piece of original verse … published by the poet himself, or of which he can be shown to have authorized the posthumous publication”4—a treasure to a Wordsworth devotee!

  1. Quirk & Leopard in the seaside town of Hermanus in the Western Cape province of South Africa; all hardcovers, for less than 400 ZAR (South African rands, approximately 24 USD, 21 EUR or 19 GBP)—a steal.
  2. The Times’ Concise Atlas of the World: Ninth Edition.
  3. In the “I bought an atlas” section.
  4. An extract from the front flap of the dust jacket.

Launching the Anthology

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A Dam in the Still, 25 July 2020. Copyright 2020 Forgotten Fields. All rights reserved.
I took this photograph today on a perfect late-winter morning in South Africa.

A Late Winter Launch

Today was another winter idyll. It convinced me that late winter is the ideal time to launch this anthology: the days are crisp and clear, flocks bleat on the hills, and the pear tree blooms in the valley.

There are fourteen sketches left to develop. It takes me around four weeks to transform drafts into complete poems. Therefore, I project the compositions will be finished next year, about this time.

Protracted, but Appropriate

That would mean two more years before I publish them, if I were to commit to this late-winter launch date. This suits the project, since some time must be spent on producing the handmade books.

Moreover, I intend to devote a considerable amount of time to the creation of items supplementary to the anthology—a year to attend to these suits me well—wherefore I anticipate a launch only in 2022.