Year of the Rat by Charles G. Lauder Jr.
An intelligent, insightful exploration of this human life and its connection to the natural world. Family is centred, as the poet presents a universe in which everything is connected, or is striving to connect:
.. I studied the tracks everyone was on
moving towards each other crashing
into one another’s life or just missing
(Blank Canvas)
Animals are everywhere – from the eponymous rat and their offspring (The Year of the Rat) to domestic pets:
the day’s work is unleashed with the dog
his tail’s white tip high and swinging
(Evening at Bruntingthorpe Air Base)
The movement of time through us all and how we are changed by this is discussed in poems such as The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao which also explores the underlying spiritual, or Taoist philosophy. The need to be conscious of time passing without trying to hold it back is beautifully expressed, here, and in the whole pamphlet. An uplifting emotionally charged read.
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