AustLit

'‘Ecce Homo!’ His challenge echoes down the centuries, ‘Behold the Man!’ How will nine painters, each with their own particular style, culture, attitudes and ambitions relate to the challenge? However they react, Ecce Homo will relate to each individually. A painter may accept, reject, try to avoid, or argue with Him. The reaction of a devout painter like El Greco may be predictable, but how about an argumentative Michelangelo, or introspective Rembrandt; and how will Van Gogh react to be told, ‘You have His eyes, Vincent’? And what of our last painter, Nicholas Roerich? Ecce Homo makes no appearance among his tributes. Is that because the challenge is no longer relevant, or because it has been so understood that His appearance is no longer needed?'

Source : publisher's blurb

'A Way Less Travelled features different ways of looking at the world around us, and the actions of people trying to see everyday things in a different light. It is inspired by the poetry and paintings of William Blake, sharing his spiritual focus on the symbolism of Jerusalem, and expressing a concern for justice and world peace.' (Publication summary)

'Can you imagine a world without music? We shape sounds into words, yet sound itself gives us the means to escape the bondage of words. We try to convey the essence of beauty in its most intense and ineffable forms, even when we know that the most well chosen words cannot quite express the scope of our experience. In this collection, allowing for the inadequacies of language, I have been inspired by the music of twelve composers, from the Middle Ages to our own time. This is not to say that all the poems are about music, but that these composers, each of whom has made their mark on our culture, have inspired my attempts to express beauty, both in terms of nature and human creativity in many forms, while coming back in the end to their music as my primary source of inspiration.'   (Publication summary)

'The Medicine Wheel turns through each of the eight sections in this collection, with the poems gathered into each part touching on many subjects: nature poems running through the seasons, personality portraits, social concerns - such as the plight of refugees, the treatment of animals, and persecution leading one to consider the price of being true to one's conscience. History is touched on in Part 5, with the Cathars, and the fall of Montsegur remembered, but through it all one gets a sense that the Wheel is turning, through good and ill. The final turn comes at the very end, with Rembrandt - in his painting of the two companions who, with Christ at Emmaus, sit down for a meal at the end of the day - finding perhaps 'the truth within the symbol', leading one to ask, did the painter indeed find the real good medicine, what 'he had been seeking / all his days'?' (Publication Summary)

'These poems are presented as entries in a prisoner’s diary – one who is, by implication a prisoner of conscience. These entries, preceded by a brief prelude hinting at recurring themes, represent his thoughts and memories. He does not focus all the time on the daily realities of imprisonment – how could he, and remain still sane? He looks back in time, remembering people and places, all the while visited – indeed, illuminated – by a white dove, whose presence represents to him peace, love, freedom, enlightenment and, above all, in her coming and going, hope. But when the dove makes her final return, looking through the window bars she sees an empty cell. He has been released, love has triumphed. But has release been achieved because a government willed it, or by his passing beyond this mortal life? Let the reader decide.' (Publication summary)