A Solitary Pine Tree in Sussex

Tim Beech

These vivid and wild nature poems sit in the tradition of Geoffrey Hill and Ted Hughes, inhabiting the Sussex landscape with sensuality and well-whetted words. The collection draws us into a profound understanding of local ecology, conveying a sense of symbiosis with the natural rhythms peculiar to the South Downs through stark images and patiently worked sonic patterns. Beech’s nature sometimes seems fragile and precariously poised, as in the pine tree of the title poem:

See how it leans

Carved by the wind,

The solid figure of an impossible dream.

Pieces such as 'Blackthorn' build darkly upon the power of such images to draw the imagination into uncharted underworlds, such as that ruled by 'The dragonfly larva, / Savage god of the pond'. But while Beech chronicles the brutal brevity of these tiny lives, a profound affinity for the slower transitions of the seasons provides the collection with the means to reflect on the more troubling duration of human existence. At the end of his thought-provoking 'Winter' sequence Beech reflects with icy ambiguity, 'coldness lingers long in lonely minds', but that 'In winter’s bare domain much comfort lies'.

ISBN 0-9542443-5-4
£6 plus £4 p&p