Red in tooth and claw: that is one way of characterising nature, but by no means the only way. Dog eat dog: that is one way of characterising the culture of our conflicted species, but again not the only way.

The poems in Sapling & Wood explore aspects of nature and culture from the standpoint of the poet’s own experience, aided by relatives and friends, and by other authors, notably William Blake and Walt Whitman.

Illustrations from a variety of sources, including friends’ artwork, enliven the text, and a prose commentary by the poet preambles each of the four sections into which the book is divided, namely “Kith”, “Kin”, “Enmities & Reconciling”, and “Word Over All”.

Here is a sample poem from the collection:

Another Proverb of Hell

After William Blake; for Murdo Richie

The experience of defeat is bitter.
Too often borne, it can make us quite forget
what sweet is; conversely, it can educate.
It can be a school for victory.

Marx knew this.
Down the long battlegrounds
and graveyards of our forebears’ history,
he saw the People felled each time we rose,
our status reaffirmed as soon as we contested it.
Back we went to being slave or serf
or proletarian; but each time we learned,
and sometimes made some lesser gain,
some lesser good than gaining power.

Never must we forget it:
both gains and goal are our sweet heritage,
equally with the gall that is defeat.

For Marx, student of ancient history,
Antaeus stood as the best example
of this ancient truth: Antaeus,
that Titan wrestler, no sooner downed
than springing up, renewed,
like a Green Man, with fresh vigour
and keen cunning, ready for ever
to fight back.

 Green Man image by Tom Malone

Sapling & Wood, ISBN: 9781912710737, £14, is available here.