Wild Waters Never Sleep

By Stafan Lowry

Wild Waters Never Sleep is an all new and best of collection of poetry from the author of From the Igloo Confessional, Winterland, and Venom and Nectar; Stefan Lowry. In this poetic voyage brimming with insight and words from the soul, the author entices the reader with poems that surge to another time and place wrapped around the threads of natures beauty. Returning to classical poetic themes yet written in contemporary forms, Wild Waters Never Sleep brings together the best of Stefan Lowrys canon of work over the last ten years while welcoming the reader into new seas of majestic atmospheres and enrapturing wonder.

The eloquent yet grandeur of ancient China is brought to life in Nanjing Road; The Album, a tribute of sorts to the work and life of Li Po. Featuring poems such as The Chow Mein Lady, Gold Spun Rain, and The Peony Emperor. This brocade of written structures flows with the mighty waters that wind deep from the Far East into the readers imagination. The Cathedral Forest sees a return to nature that will remind readers of the authors first book, Flight of the Imagination. These pools of poetry take readers into Technicolor Rain, Kingdoms Under the Sun, and Bells Back Home. The next movement brings the Hummingbird Hotel to life in rich color and voice. A wanderlust set of poems, featuring Direct Light, Origami Glass, and To All the Saints. Maelstrom collects some of the authors best work over the last decade inside one frame. Including new versions and edits, revisit Far to the North, To Catch Mona Lisa, and Procession of the Flying Seahorses. Finally, Wild Waters brings us to Canadian Creek, a cozy simple collection the author penned over ten years ago and has never been published till now. Maple Leaf Mine, Prosper O Newfoundland, and Legende de un Province and more take us to a faraway place of solitude and quiet beauty.

This collection comes round full circle from a writer who continues to emerge with new word art and the blending of traditional and contemporary, giving readers something new to always discover. The currents in Wild Waters Never Sleep flow and ebb to new literary shores, and remind the reader the beauty and adventure that is poetic art.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Nov 8, 2011
• ISBN: 9781462062805

Stafan Lowry

Stefan Lowry, a writer and artist has, has published four previous books. Flight of The Imagination, Winterland the Christmas Collection, From the Igloo Confessional, and Venom and Nectar. He lives in Florida and also runs a media business that focuses on book and music sales, and publishing.

Book preview

Contents

Acknowledgements

Where the Wild Waters Meet

WAVE 1

Nanjing Road; The Album

Deluge

Into the Land

Gold Spun Rain

The Crane of China

Shiitake Mushroom

Nanjing Road

Escape into Shanghai

Red Gate Open

The Peony Emperor

The Chow Mein Lady

Not Forbidden

Under the Flowing Tree

Carved Garden

Hong Kong Electric Company

Snow Monkey

Put On the Armor

When You Float to the Moon

Apothecary

Egg Drop Soup Lullaby

Ten Years: Dedicated to T’ienanmen Square 1989-1999

The End by Chen Jingrong

WAVE 2

The Cathedral Forest

Trees in the Woods; Dedicated to John Muir

Storm Now Over

Night Dust

Apples Turning in the Snow

The Cathedral Forest

Weeds in the Heart

Technicolor Rain

Spring Soldiers

Kingdoms Under the Sun

I Saw a Seagull

What Has Been

Bells Back Home

Thunder Song

Absolute Illumination (New Version)

From the Woods of John Muir

WAVE 3

Hummingbird Hotel

Origami Glass

Detached

Aquaria

Direct Light

Hummingbird Hotel

A Fresh Day

Hunt Me Down

November Pottery

Journey to Mars

Miss Madeline’s Marmalade

To All the Saints

Mont Saint Michel

Civil Feather

Rising Suns

Gypsies of the Modern Inquisition

WAVE 4

Maelstrom

The Best of 1999-2011

Far to the North (Flight of the Imagination 1999)

Midnight Call (Flight of the Imagination 1999)

Daily Market (Flight of the Imagination 1999)

Lusterfjord (From the Igloo Confessional 2005)

North Sea Lullaby

(New Version) (Winterland the Christmas Collection 2002)

Eventyr (From the Igloo Confessional 2005)

Wood and Wool (Winterland the Christmas Collection 2002)

To Catch Mona Lisa (From the Igloo Confessional 2005)

The Girl with the Flaxen Hair (Venom and Nectar 2009)

Maelstrom (Venom and Nectar 2009, appeared as Maelstrom of Sound)

Prague Winter (From the Igloo Confessional 2005)

Welcome to Wenceslas Square

(appeared in Winterland the Christmas Collection 2002 as Wenceslas Winter Wheat) (New Version)

February Revolution (Venom and Nectar 2009)

Tideland (From the Igloo Confessional 2005)

Stagnant (Venom and Nectar 2009)

Tomorrows Front Porch (Winterland the Christmas Collection 2002)

Procession of the Flying Seahorses (Venom and Nectar 2009)

WAVE 5

Canadian Creek

Maple Leaf Mine

Port of the Maritimes

Hotel du Canada

Salmon Island

Prosper O Newfoundland

The Crab of Nova Scotia

One Minute to Ontario (Dedicated to Grandmother Ida)

Saskatchewan Fiddle

The Caledonia Bagpipe Player

Territories of Frost

Ever Changing

About the Author

About Water.org

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Yale University Press’s

Anthology of Modern Chinese Poetry by Michelle Yeh 1994

with use of the following:

Twilight by Lin Geng

Division by Cheng Jingrong

Remorse by Wen Yiduo

Beyond the Border by Qin Zihao

The End by Gu Cheng

and Sayonara by Xu Zhimo

to Deborah Jones at the London Science Museum

for her help and securing license for the front cover art, Diagram of Meteorology

‘Science Museum/SSPL’.

And to Water.org for usage of the companies mission statement.

Where the Wild Waters Meet

Below

Endless chasms, a chaos of boiling water

Roaring through them,

Battling waves that smash the racing torrents into foam.—Li Po

As I write, torrents of waves are churning here at home in Florida, as a hurricane is badgering the east coast of the country up north. I am reminded of the finely stitched words from Chinese poet Li Po which are presented above. To know that waters truly do never sleep, no matter where on earth whether it be an ocean, river, tide, or estuary etc, is a powerful thought that we don’t think about and take for granted with every sunrise and sunset. Our recent times have been chalked with a film of memory by the fury of water. Tsunamis and hurricanes, massive floods and rains, migrating waves from Asia to America, Europe and beyond. Water has been the main ingredient for so much destruction yet the main ingredient for survival. In the scope of poetry, water becomes a display of aqua fireworks for the writer to draw from. For this collection the theme of this globe covered force is more of a turning waterwheel that carries these pieces, an under flowing current that links and celebrates the wonder of nature, and many other delicious things that flow within it.

One might think I came up with this title purposely because of the current events taking place around us. I did come up with it of course but oddly it was over ten years ago now and was never planned to be a link to natural events per say. It was originally going to be the title of my second book, but for some reason, which now I understand why, didn’t work out. A better time was waiting, a different era, a new tide where it fit in place