Poetry: 'Building with words, sculpting with sound'

Richard England's Between Coincidence and Chance: Selected Poems is his latest book.  The stunning images are by one of his grandsons Damian Darmanin which he specially created for this book.

This poetry book is dedicated to Richard's wife Myriam, a beautiful dedication which only someone as profound as Richard could compose.

In his Foreward  he writes: "As an architect who writes poetry the relationship between the two forms of artistic expression has always been of particular interest. In the Foreword to this collection of poems I shall attempt to investigate the link between the two disciplines; in poetry the elasticity between words and their silent intervals; in architecture the correlation between the solidity of the construction materials and their intermittent spatial voids."

I wonder if here he was thinking of the philosophy of the Chinese work, the Tao Te Ching: "Just as we take advantage of what is, we should recognise the utility of what is not."

In his foreword Prof. England's wide knowledge is very evident. He concludes that "While the relationship between poetry and architecture remains nebulous, it is obvious that the two disciplines share many parallels including that of the ultimate aim of evoking, through lyricism, emotional meaning."

The book is divided into about 12 sections, thus grouping poems of more or less the same subject, together.

At the beginning of each section there is an appropriate quote. Here are a handful of my favourites: "You may encounter many defeats but you must not be defeated." MAYA ANGELOU.

 And here's an extremely topical quote about the environment from JOHN PAUL II: "The Earth will not continue to offer it's harvest, except with faithful stewardship."

Under the section Hades, appropriately we have an ominous quote from DANTE which has never ceased to make me shudder: "Lasciate ogni Speranza voi ch'entrate."

 Poets through the ages have penned many a poem and beautiful verse to help themselves, and us, understand not only life but ourselves and our world as well.

 Prof. England throughout years of writing poetry has done just that.

SEEKING AND SEARCHING

LONGING

SEEKING AND SEARCHING

TO

BELONG

BUT

TO

WHOM AND WHAT

I

DO

NOT

KNOW

SEARCH AND SEEK

SEARCH AND SEEK

NOT

FOR

SOMETHING SOMEWHERE

BUT

TO

DISCOVER

YOUR

ALTER

EGO

AND

TRUE SELF

Time and our experiences, change us.

Richard shares with us these thoughts:

I

AM

NO

LONGER

WHO I WAS

TIME

HAS TAKEN ITS TOLL.

He is consistent:

I

MISS

WHO

I

ONCE

WAS

AND

REGRET

WHO

I

AM

NOW.

As we age and we are aware that life is drawing to an end, inevitably hard as we try to cling to optimism some pessimism sets in - and even more questions.

THE HAND THAT WRITES THESE LINES

I

REMEMBER AND REVERE

THE FIRE THAT ONCE IGNITED

THE HAND THAT WRITES THESE LINES.

MUTED BY THE ABACUS OF TIME

THE FLAME TODAY NO LONGER BURNS

ONLY

ASHES

CHARRED AND SEARED

REMAIN.

WITH

FOUNTAIN DRAINED AND WATERS PARCHED

AND

NOTHING LEFT TO SAY

ONLY THE FADED POLLEN OF A POET'S VERSE

NOW SCENTS THE BLANKNESS OF THE PAGE

Inevitably there is regret:

ONCE

IN SORROW AND IN SADNESS

I

RECALL

THAT

ONCE

WE

WERE

SO

CLOSE

YET

NOW

YEARS

HAVE

PASSED

AND

WE

ARE

DISTANT AND REMOTE

WITH

A

FATHOMLESS DISTANCE BETWEEN US.

However, he urges us to live in the present:

LIVE THE NOW

REMEMBER

THE

PAST

DREAM

THE

FUTURE

BUT

LIVE

THE

NOW.

Prof. England dedicates the following poem to his friend, the world renowned architect Ian Richie. In his book Chambers of Memory (edited by Conrad Thake, published by Kite, 2018) Prof. Ritchie writes: "I first met Richard England in 2016, as a result of having won an international architecture competition in Malta three years earlier... It soon became clear that we share a love of writing poetry - that process of grappling with words to give inchoate ideas form and meaning with the crispness so vital in writing and architecture. We exchanged our own books on poetry and architecture. The poem inevitably reveals the poet, and in Richard's poetry I sensed an intellectual and sensual nature yearning to lift the edge of the veil between the sublunary and the spiritual sides of the human being."

Here is the poem:

I DREAM A POEM'S VERSE

(For Ian Ritchie)

FOR

SEVEN DAYS AND SEVEN NIGHTS

I

DREAM A POEM'S VERSE

SEARCHING FOR WORDS

TO

THREAD AND WEAVE.

THEN

FROM THE SHORELINE OF A DISTANT LAND

I

HEAR A SEABIRD'S SONG

DANCE THE DAWN

AND

AS

ON

LYRIC TIDAL WAVES

THE

NECTAR NOTES

REACH THE SAND DUNES OF MY EARS

THE

MUSE IS MANTLED

THE

TEMPLATE DRAFTED

AND

THE

POEM

PENNED.

Inevitably Richard is preoccupied with death and the hereafter. We are spiritual beings after all. Some of my favourite poems in this book deal with these matters which to some of us are very important.

EARTHBOUND

IN

HESITATION

I

STRIVE

TO

COME TO KNOW MYSELF

UNQUESTIONABLY

EARTHBOUND

TRANSITORY AND INTERIM

YET

POSSIBLY

AND

IN

ALL

PROBABILITY

A

BEING

OF

ETERNITY

PERPETUAL

WITHOUT

END.

No one has an answer. Not even Prof.England. Shall we live in eternal bliss or turn into compost?

WHERE SHALL I GO

AT THE CLOSING OF MY DAYS

WHERE SHALL I GO

PERHAPS

TO

HEAVEN

PERHAPS

TO

HELL

OR

TO

SOMEWHERE

IN

BETWEEN

OR

PERHAPS

TO

NO PLACE AT ALL.

Eternity would be welcome but not a comeback! I share this view wholeheartedly.

DEATH BECKONS

AS

DEATH

BECKONS

IN

FEAR

I

WATCH

THE

SANDGRAINS

FALL

TO

MARK

THE

COURSE

OF

TIME.

YET

AT THE END OF MY JOURNEY

I SHALL DEPART

WITH NO DESIRE TO RETURN.

It is impossible for me to do justice to this book of poems. I chose the shorter ones, for reasons of space and a handful of the ones of what interests me most. There is so much more to explore.

There are writers who die to the world long before they are dead. In his early 80s Prof. England is not only writing poetry and prose but painting, drawing, travelling and designing buildings. He excels in everything he does. To those of us hacks who, after writing a few hundred words need to lie down and have wet cloths applied to our brows, here is Prof England producing so much at the rate of knots.

He makes us think, he makes us look at our lives, he says in a few beautiful words of poetry that which we already feel and think.

Recommendations seem to me almost impudent but especially if you are a lover of poetry beg, borrow or steal a copy of Between Coincidence and Chance. Or simply buy yourself a copy so that you can mark your favourite poems and read them again and again.

The book is available at www.kitegroup.com.mt

MARIE BENOIT