At World's End, Begin

In a new country, amid a pandemic, the author moved to a remote forest hamlet and found a way to connect with the land by taking the time to linger, listen, and observe. This led to a series of haiku and lyric poems that explore the Celtic wheel of the year and the Japanese solar terms, revealing a new aspect of change. The poems find their place at the end of the world, but also at the beginning, exploring what it means to hold together being adrift and belonging, cycles and transformation, and how we find a beginning at the end of the world.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 44 pages
Publication date: 15 February 2023
Publisher: Cinnamon Press

In a foreign land, amidst a pandemic, the only way to connect is to immerse oneself in the environment, to observe, listen, and embrace the land that gradually becomes home. From these observations, a series of haiku emerge, following the Japanese system of 24 seasons divided into 72 micro-seasons and interspersed with eight lyric poems that traverse the Celtic wheel of the year. As a forest garden and its surrounding Finistère woodland unfold, they intertwine the lunar and solar cycles, blending the Celtic shape of the year with the increments of the Japanese solar terms. Each revelation unveils a new facet of change.

Charting a life unmoored from the familiar, yet receptive to the new, the poems find their place at the "end of the world," as the Romans called Finistère, but also at Penn-ar-Bed, the Breton name that signifies both the end and the beginning of the world. Most endings are also beginnings, and within these precise and exquisitely observed poems, we find ourselves oscillating between unsettlement and settling, exploring the essence of holding together while being adrift and belonging. We delve into cycles of transformation and discover the possibility of finding a new beginning at the very end of the world.

Weight: 58g
Dimension: 189 x 120 x 7 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781788641371