Sonnets from the New World

By David George

BEAUTY


Sometimes unexpectedly, unbidden,
Beauty comes. Not a downpouring of doves,
Not a Venus, sheathed in an ivory shell,
Not even the lenses of Stonehenge in its season—
Stones aligned to catch the sun as it moves
Mystically, majestically, through holes
And crevices.
Not even these spectaculars—
The light against the dark, the white ecstatic,
Stars falling and setting the sky on fire—
Take possession, or let the moment take
The horse high over the hedge with an unseen rider.

It comes when least expected, when the dark
Opens a crack to let light filter in—
A word, a look, a sudden realization.

— David George



Step into the timeless world of the poetry of ideas and humanity, art and nature, history and beauty.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Sep 25, 2019
• ISBN: 9781728324302

David George

Dr David George was formerly Associate Director of Nene College (now the University of Northampton) and before that Dean of The Faculty of Science. He was Founder President of the National Association For Able Children and was a member of the Executive Committee of The World Council of Gifted and Talented Children. He is a consultant to the British Council and UNESCO. He has lectured both nationally and internationally on the education of the gifted and talented. He is the author of Young, Gifted and Bored; The Challenge of The Able Child; Gifted Education; Enrichment Activities for Able Children; and Making The Most of Your Abilities.He claims to be a teacher first and foremost having taught in three schools and has a wide experience of teacher education in Liverpool and Northampton. His enthusiasm and devotion to teaching is reflected in all his courses.David is also a keen sportsman and ran for his county and the RAF. He was Chairman of Managers at St Andrews Hospital for five years and continues as a manager. He was President of His Rotary Club and was made an Honorary Commander at RAF Croughton (USAF) in recognition of his service to the community.

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© 2019 David George. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 09/23/2019

ISBN: 978-1-7283-2431-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-2430-2 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Dedicated to

the Blessed Virgin Mary

INTRODUCTION

by David George

I usually recommend that you let the poetry speak for itself.

CONTENTS

I.          THE SHAPE OF THINGS

The Shape Of Things

Edward Hopper’s Room In Brooklyn (1932)

Rainbow

House By A Railroad

The Man In The Marble Pit At Carrara

Flight-Path

Reflections On A Shapely Form In Flight

Beauty

From The Notebooks Of John The Alchemist

Stone

II.        THINGS OF THE SEA BELONG TO THE SEA

Things Of The Sea Belong To The Sea

The Birth Of Venus

The Sea Is Waiting, Like Penelope

Jack-Salmon

The Spider-Crab

Whale-Watching From An Open Boat

The Turtle

Beyond The Beach

Seaward Leans The Shell

The Dolphin

Found-Object

III.      IN THE BEGINNING IS THE UGLY

In The Beginning Is The Ugly

The Sculptor

From A Footnote In The Book Of The Dead

Stained-Glass In A Crystal Paradise

Thinking About Wild Geese Going Over

Thoughts In The Sistine Chapel

Under The Jesse Window In Chartres Cathedral

The Dome

A Time For Soaring And For Falling Back

Aquariums

IV.       A SENSE OF ORDER IN ANOTHER ARENA

A Sense Of Order In Another Arena

Chapels And Tabernacles

What The Desert Father Said

Unless A Man Be Born Again From Above

That Building In New York

To Move In Time Beyond The Metronome

Looking At Hieroglyphs In The British Museum

The Kept Hawk

Rose Windows

Dust Thou Art

V.         DARKLY THROUGH A HORSEFLY’S EYE

Darkly Through A Horse-Fly’s Eye

The Butterfly

The Swan

The Unicorn

The Toad

The Courtly Stance Of Basho’s Bird Of Love

The Hawk

Three Ways Of Getting To Know The Man That Stands In Snow

VI.      NIGHTS OF WOODSMOKE

Nights Of Woodsmoke

Passing Through Kansas

On A Dig In The Badlands

Tree-Cutting At Christmas

Near Wounded Knee, South Dakota

Mountain Lion, Troy, Montana

Waiting For Wild Horses

The Hangman Of Hangtown (Placerville)

The Dark Brown Owl

My Daughter Is A Runner

The Rare Black Swan Shot Down Near Sacramento

Washington’s Monument, 1985

VII.     SIGHTING REALITY THROUGH THE NECK OF A BOTTLE

Sighting Reality Through The Neck Of A Bottle

Seeing Brightly With The Mind’s Eye

A Spider In The Dark

Reflected Sunlight In A Clefted Rock

Owl-Call

Looking At A Zen Painting In An Art Museum

The Colors Of The Country Of The Blind

The Blonde Bather Of Provence And Pompeii

Seeing With The Third Eye

Pins And Wheels: A Metaphysical

The Island Drawn From Memory

The Unblinking Buddha In The Eye Of Stone

VIII.   SOONER OR LATER DELICATE DEATH

Sooner Or Later Delicate Death

The Spider

While Reading A Biography Of Roethke

Statues

Hector Slain

On Fields Of Grey Regret

Gongora

Chance Encounter In A Catacomb

Grass

IX.       THE MAN WHO WENT BEYOND E=MC2

The Man Who Went Beyond E=Mc2

The Last Pieta

The Key

The Dancing Ant

The Hands That Held

Christ And Yeats Among The Violets

This Little Man

The Bat

From A Report To The Commissar

Summa

X.        GALAXIES

Galaxies

Modern Art In Silos Where Missiles Are

The Visitors

Ezekiel Articulates His Vision

Einstein In His Study, 1921

Synchronicity

Figurines

That Star

Starmen

Death Squared

Index To Titles

Index To First Lines

David George And Jean Migrenne,

About The Author

I.

THE SHAPE OF THINGS

THE SHAPE OF THINGS

The ever-expanding curve of things to come

Began to move before the earth was born.

It arches over everything. Each line

Bends to fit the apex of where it has been,

And stretches into what it will become.

The shapes of things determine what they are:

Perfect spheres of falling water fall

In shapes that never vary from the norm;

A circle is born when air and water form

Mute alliance within a molecule.

Soul is circle. How could it be square?

Towers lean, but circles float in air.

And tons of snowflakes, falling on a pond,

Become, in fact, what they are falling on.

EDWARD HOPPER’S ROOM IN BROOKLYN (1932)

A vase a lamp a chair in a room in Brooklyn—

Metamorphosed by the language of light—

Once were objects in the bright dimension

Of a