Bending Reeds

By Rob Hadfield

The poems in this book reflect themes that involve the processes of bending with the wind, of living in the flow of things, of human connection and resilience, of being and becoming in the earthiness of things as they are, without avoidance. It is also about meaning and living with grace given, about the sources of this within spirituality as a present-centered experience of self-transcendence, but without glossiness or presumption. Spirituality involves pain and desolation, as well as insight, integration, strengthening and comfort. It emerges in the rawness of things like loss, grief, failure, fragility and the felt exile from, as well as presence of, inner divine nurturance. Some poems also express joy and pleasure, connection to nature, to seasonal changes in the high country of New England, and a sense of the ironic and satirical. Some explore the deeply personal, some the relational and communal, some the collective and historical. Still others reflect on the nature of life and change. In one or two an ecological mysticism is expressed, in keeping with an holistic spirituality; conceptual ways of knowing are inadequate for describing the interconnected fullness of lived experience.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Mar 30, 2016
• ISBN: 9781514446409

Rob Hadfield

Rob Hadfield has lived in Armidale since 1974. This city, set in the high country of the northern tablelands of NSW, has provided him with many opportunities, personally and professionally. The move to the country coincided with a move from school teaching (in Papua-New Guinea and Sydney) into psychological counselling, later finding its expression in tertiary teaching at Armidale College of Advanced Education and the University of New England. More recently he has developed a private counselling psychology practice in the city and worked as a counsellor at O’Connor Catholic College and, since 2006, at The Armidale School. Living ten kilometres from Armidale, Rob enjoys country life, his family, walking, cycling, music, literature, history and being outdoors in the garden. Overseas travel, with his wife Margaret, has been especially fruitful in broadening and deepening his experience of life. Poetry has long been a part of his personal engagement with experiences of all kinds, the search for meaning and understanding, and the acute sense of life itself in all its rich complexity and fragility. Rob’s life is grounded within a contemplative spirituality in the Christian tradition that also turns towards the social and natural world in all its confronting, concrete and specific realities. The diversity of Rob’s life experiences is reflected in the selection of poems for this book.

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Copyright © 2016 by Rob Hadfield.

ISBN:      Softcover        978-1-5144-4639-3

                eBook              978-1-5144-4640-9

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Rev. date: 03/30/2016

Xlibris

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Contents

Preface

The Songlines

Lineage and Place

Morning Reverie

Fog

Late Autumn in New England

Mid-Winter

Winter Break, Comboyne

Terry’s Creek

Flight Paths

DH82 Tiger Moth Exhibit, Narrandera

A Study in Contrasts - Coonabarabran

‘It’s a Good Life’ - Comboyne

Miss Nellie’s Cafe

‘Selfie Stick’

Whale Watching

The ‘Coo-ee March’ - Commemoration Exhibition, Gilgandra

Reflections on the ‘Coo-ee March’ Exhibition, Gilgandra.

The Great Ocean Road, Victoria

Nazi Parade Ground, Nuremburg

Human Imprints - Budapest

Birthplace of ‘The Messiah’ - Handel’s House, London

Thistle-down on the Wind

The Birth

College Cohort

Dick - Philosopher, Contemplative, Mentor

Hal

From the Headland

Betwixt and Between

A Mystic

Always Grace

Asleep

The Room

Integration

AD 49

Retreat, Franciscan Monastery, Stroud

The Franciscan Lifestyle

Wafers and Red Wine

Present Moments

The Sermon

The Man and the Maze

New Perspective

Ordinarily Unique

Connecting

Naked Laughter

Variations on ‘Leaving’

Code

Autumn

Parting

Dissolving

Waiting

Legacy

Renewal

Spirituality

Poems from ‘Special Friends’

Preface to ‘Special Friends’

The Teashop

Waiting

Adieu

The Extra Chair

The Leaving Years: the Poetic Journal of a Grief Journey

Preface to ‘The Leaving Years’

Ninety-Six

Settling For What We Have

The Change

Another Year On

At Her Dying What Will It Be?

Old Hymns

Vale Colin

Synchronicity: Winchester Cathedral and Magpies

Keeping Faith: Writing the Tribute for Colin

Alone

The Wish

Now and Next

Portrait at Ninety-Eight

Anticipatory Consent

Deep Frailty

Ninety-Nine

The Request

End Vigil

Today

Atrium Birthday Ritual

Absence

The Common Stream

About the Author

To Margaret and each one in our family, with my love. To all whose responses to life as bending reeds have shown me how to live, with my gratitude. To the Beloved who calls me to the graced spiritual journey, with the seeds of faith, hope and love within me.

Preface

‘The green reed which bends in the wind is stronger than the mighty oak which breaks in a storm.’ Confucius.

Over the centuries this ancient statement of Confucius has had many variations and has found its way into a wide range of literature and artistic forms. Its meanings too, have subtle nuances and cross-currents, so that it is not as simple a saying as it appears. The title for this second volume of poetry, Bending Reeds seemed to be an apt and inclusive one for the poems chosen. Let me describe how the saying is understood in this volume.

Human life is set within time, space and circumstance in such a way that its rhythms, cycles, natural settings and social-historical contexts, shape personal experience. On the other hand, the human response to all that life brings is something that goes beyond these influences. Our responses are personal, relational and existential.

Through our capacity to adapt to events and circumstance, to respond in ways that help us survive and thrive in the midst of life’s challenges, we continue to define what it means to be human, to be a person. Adaptation seems to have two dynamics – on the one hand,