TURNING by Jeremy Loynes
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Jeremy Loynes is a long-time admirer of the lyrical poems of Edward Thomas and Robert Frost. He shares Thomas’s love of the English countryside and his gentle, meditative approach to describing nature; he interweaves description with his contemplation of the world both outside and inside the poet’s mind.
"Turning" is his dèbut collection. In the first section of the book he turns outwards to look at the rural landscape of Somerset where he grew up and Surrey where he now lives; in the second section he turns his focus inwards to the spiritual life that nature inspires. |
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"With this collection dedicated to them I have to say, just a few pages in, these poems would have been acceptable companions for Edward Thomas and Robert Frost, continuing as they do their nature-loving sensibility. The poems are old-fashioned maybe ... but I have to say many found me smiling in happy recognition. They are after all love poems, positive and generally upbeat..."
Sam Smith (The Journal #54) "The first section has about it a Wordsworthian appreciation of the natural world. Characters find comfort and solace amongst pastures and woods. ‘The quiet hills’ sees the enraged character ‘’striding out through field and forest’’ to a landscape that is ‘’cooling, calming’. In other works there is almost a love affair with nature... This is a collection of contrasts that is technically adapt and skilled. It reminds us of our need to re-acquaint with nature even if exiled to the city. It reveals the human condition which without some form of spiritual dimension seems lost, lonely and isolated. Yet despite it all concludes that all experience, good and bad, makes us who we are." Fiona Sinclair (Reviewer for The Lake) |
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