In this latest collection from Dream Catcher editor Paul Sutherland, 'Journeying' is an activity, a state of mind, and a wide-reaching metaphor. The poems cover the realities of physical journeying, and the thoughts and observations as we move from place to place. In turn these are contrasted with scenes of extreme stillness, as in the poet's memory of a night's vigil at the bedside of his elderly grandmother.
There are discussions of more abstract journeys as well: along 'inner paths, outside time and space', and the perils of retracing one's steps in search of self-knowledge. The book concludes with the long poem 'Red Hawthorn-Hedged', which offers a final word on the journeys we take, whatever the destination.
"Paul Sutherland makes a poetry of contradiction: psychological and intellectual inquiry are matched by a ready emotional depth; epic and intimate scales overlap; it's homeless and historically rooted, free and exact."
Ian Duhig
"The poems are a beautiful evocation of landscape and longing. There is a great sadness in them, a feeling of an exile from a place that had once been home, but also a sense of alienation from a place which is now home. They capture beautifully the need to return and the knowledge that you never can... a superb collection."
Karen Maitland
"Paul Sutherland's masterful ability to travel between the abstract, almost philosophical layers of thinking and the very concrete, earth-like reminiscences, is something any reader will find fascinating."
Mario Susko
"Very readable, deeply-felt, and always interesting. The poems speak with an original and idiosyncratic voice and [Sutherland] has a great grasp of form. Some lovely details, a sense of a lived experience, and a realistic glance at the world."
Ian Parks
"Paul Sutherland is a poet who evokes so well the perspective of the foreign traveller who has eventually settled, almost without realizing it, in a land thousands of miles from his own. Paul's compelling way of telling stories in poetry opens the door widely and generously to the humanity of his world, which as we read on, becomes ours."
Ian Seed
"Paul Sutherland's poems are thoughtful, reflective and evocative. They draw on personal experiences and mythology to create new narratives through which the tremors of history are felt with the force of parables."
Graham Mort
Paul Sutherland was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1947, and arrived in the UK in 1973. He is founder and editor of the literary journal Dream Catcher, currently in its 26th issue. Previous collections of Paul's own work include Seven Earth Odes (2004) and Spires and Minarets (2010). His writing has been published in more than fifty anthologies, newspapers and journals.
He has an MA in English Literature from the University of York, and became a Sufi Muslim in 2004. He won the Nassau Review (US) Poetry Prize in 2008, and was highly commended in the Aesthetica Creative Works Competition in 2009. He currently lives in Market Rasen, Lincolnshire.
| ISBN: | 9781908853059 |
| Publication date: | 12th October 2012 |
| Author: | Paul Sutherland |
| Publisher: | Valley Press |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 103 pages |
| Primary Genre | Poetry |
| Other Genres: |
A rare and luminous collection. Sutherland writes from the soul — physical landscapes becoming inner ones, exile becoming devotion. Poetry that stays with you long after the last page.
Journeying by Paul Sutherland is a collection that rewards slow, attentive reading. On the surface these are poems about movement, about landscapes crossed, cultures encountered, and the quiet life of the outsider who has made a home far from where they began. But beneath the physical journey runs something far more searching and profound.
Sutherland is a Sufi aspirant and that spiritual orientation shapes everything here. The natural world, a hedgerow, a winter road, a candle spent by morning, is never merely itself. Everything carries weight. Everything points somewhere beyond the page.
The collection builds steadily toward its breathtaking closing poem Red Hawthorn-Hedged, a 3,000 word work of sustained contemplative power that brings together every thread of the book in a finale that is genuinely moving.... Read Full Review
Poetry That Changes the Way You See the Ordinary World
I came to Journeying not knowing quite what to expect, and left it feeling as though something in the way I look at the world had quietly shifted.
Paul Sutherland writes about movement, between countries, between landscapes, between the familiar and the strange, but what stays with you long after the last page is the quality of attention he brings to everything he encounters. A road, a hedgerow, a winter light, a moment of stillness between one place and the next. Nothing in these poems is merely observed. Everything is felt, and everything points somewhere beyond itself.
Sutherland is a Canadian who made his home in Britain, and that outsider's perspective gives the collection an unusual clarity. He sees things that people who have always belonged somewhere tend to stop noticing.... Read Full Review
In this latest collection from Dream Catcher editor Paul Sutherland, 'Journeying' is an activity, a state of mind, and a wide-reaching metaphor. The poems cover the realities of physical journeying, and the thoughts and observations as we move from place to place.
Journeying features in the following genres: Poetry, Poetry by individual poets
Paperback. Not Available.
Journeying was written by Paul Sutherland and published by Valley Press
Journeying has 103 pages
