A Report by George Reitnour

“The Novalis School of Poetry” *

Book Blurbs from the Kimberton, PA Poetry Book Club
July 2024 – June 2026  |  Compiled and Presented by George Reitnour

*  Name given to the Pennsylvania Poetry Book Club working group by George Reitnour.

Click here to view this complete report as a PDF

From July 2024, through June 2026, for 1.5 hours each month, Kimberton-(PA/USA)-area residents gathered at the home of George and Melissa Reitnour to meet online with people from the UK, CH, the US, and Canada to review books by poets who had had some exposure to anthroposophy (from attending RS lectures, like Rilke, to being “all-in”, like Ege or Barfield). At the risk of raising mossbacks’ hackles, let’s call these books, as a group, selections from “The Novalis School of Poetry.” George’s blurbs (below) might help you determine which of these poets’ books could best benefit your community. Please note: listed prices may have changed; not all publishers are listed below; and not all books are still available.

Poets in This Report

Aldan, Daisy  ·  Allison, John  ·  Barfield, Owen  ·  Bingham, Matthew R. A.  ·  Bruckner, Peter  ·  Davidson, Annalies  ·  Donaldson, David  ·  Dreier, Alexander  ·  Fischer, Luke  ·  Garbisch, Leif  ·  Garlieb, Melissa  ·  Gold, Monica  ·  Hess, Lory Widmer  ·  Hoy, Andrew  ·  Johnston, Caryl  ·  Kobrin, Una  ·  Lukas, Jody (Waldorf School teacher)  ·  MacKaye, Percy.  ·  MacKaye-Barnes, Christy  ·  MacKaye-Ege, Arvia  ·  Matthews, Paul  ·  Middleton, Rowan  ·  Millar, Gabriele Bradford  ·  Morgenstern, Christian  ·  Morrow, Nicholas Michael  ·  Novalis (1772-1801)  ·  Ploegen, Maarten  ·  Polikoff, Daniel Joseph  ·  Raine, Kathleen  ·  Rilke, Ranier Maria  ·  Reitnour, George  ·  Rennick, Peter  ·  Richards, Mary Caroline  ·  Rubano, Joseph  ·  Sass, Gregory  ·  Stedall, Jonathan  ·  Steel, Richard  ·  Steffen, Albert  ·  Thatcher, Philip  ·  Ziguras, Jakob

Book Reviews, A–Z

Aldan, Daisy Collected Poems: Amazon.com: Books (Sky Blue Pr, 2002; 496 pages $40.00). “The Elements” with its sylphs, gnomes, undines and salamanders, “The Walking,” describing a walk at the Goetheanum, “She has Entered Midnight”, “Porto Plato” and so many other beautiful, Anthroposophia-instructed poems in this book are met with swords of consciousness like her “Poetry Reading at the Harvard Advocate” and “The National Anthem”. A “must-have” book, or if you don’t have room for the big book, find the earlier ones like the little, purple Breakthrough book with the eurythmy form on the cover.

Allison, John A Way of Seeing (Lindesfarne Books, 2003; 160 pages $16.95). John’s Way of Seeing (he wrote several other books) is a wonderful, must-have resource for poets and readers interested in Hopkins, Rilke, and other poets who illustrate perceptive and imaginative powers. The book includes some of John’s poems.

Barfield, Owen La Tour Parlor Press, 2021, 330 pages, w/ notes, bibliography, and index-Taylors. $34.99. For more detail, if you’re flush, read: Jeffrey Hipolito on Barfield, Routledge, 2021 $144.00. Of course, we know we should read Barfield. After all, CS Lewis, Tolkien, Eliot, Auden, Howard Nemerov, and Saul Bellow did. I tried. But until I read his poetry with others in a group, it slew me with ennui. For a reading group, though, wow!… Better than one more round of the Karma Lectures!

Bingham, Matthew R. A. The Book within the Temple (presswarehouse.com) (Lindisfarne Books, 2016) 141 pages $18.00. According to the cover, Matthew struggled with schizophrenia, and this book may be helpful to people experiencing that struggle directly or through loved ones (perhaps many more people than we might guess).

Bruckner, Peter The Butterfly Net (Chapbook, 2024). Now, here’s an artist if ever there was one! Peter’s puppet shows, plays, paintings, jewelry, stained glass windows, novellas, and especially his poems enthrall and amaze all three or so of his discerning devotees, and his less discerning one, me. Though his many little chapbooks are a blessing, someone needs, figuratively speaking, to beat him into publishing his poems in some manner that makes them available to the world.

Davidson, Annalies Views (available via Lulu, 2024)162 pages $5.54 + shipping (approx. $6) A thoughtful, “free-verse” read (though more conscious of rhythm and sound than most such verse… Eurythmists can’t help themselves). Poems like “Stopping” (Annalies and a deer), “Monogamous” (Annalies and a goose and Penelope), and “Wearing Sable” (Annalies and a falcon, reminding one of the “Windhover” with its reference to what is most dear), spice up this open-hearted book, co-produced by her fellow poet/eurythmist, Lory Widmer-Hess.

Donaldson, David Les douze sens (Wynstones 2023) 60 pages, $19.95. This was timely for a few of us taking a survey course on anthroposophy at our local branch, as we reviewed this book a few days before this subject was covered. This book could be read by a study group together with Albert Soesman’s book. One could say the plethora of spondees and trochees in this ambitious work indicates the kind of will and thought that goes into a production like this. Old-English throwbacks will appreciate some of the alliteration.

Dreier, Alexander The Brain is a Boundary: On Lewy Body Dementia (LindisfarneBooks 136 pages $7.99. See Alexander’s bio in spring summer 2020 journal biodynamics). Poems by a beautiful soul experiencing LBD.

Fischer, Luke A Gamble for my Daughter (Vagabond Press, 2022). This Australian philosopher/poet stands heroically between his daughter and demonic forces that would harm her before she is grown. The epic “Orphic Elegy”, a brief history of the world met by the continually-reincarnating Orpheus, and “The Gods are Silent” make clear that the poet is conscious of the environmental and social challenges to humanity, and the title poem humbly lays out how he prays to address it. This poem could be suggested reading for Waldorf school parents and artists.

Garbisch, Leif (24 Alkion Press 2021, 47 pages $7). Leif is a photographer/writer/snowbird (Sarasota & Ghent), and in poems like “For Everything Included”, ”Incarnate” and “River,” he shows an eye for the world, a heart for people, and an honest recognition of where he is in the course of his spiritual journey.

Garlieb, Melissa Handing Out Apples in Eden (Phoenix Books) (2014. 94 pages; $15.95+$7.50 shipping). Here’s a hot potato of a book! Not much held back… Sweet and surprising, a fun read for groups or anyone who wants someone to love.

Gold, Monica A Spiritual Poem Collection — Les Éditions Perceval (190 pages $22CA & shipping from Canada). It’s not every day you see a book with both a table of contents and a thematic index under titles like Anthroposophy, Community, Death, Festivals and Celebrations, Illness and Suffering, Michael, Occult Training… The poems, even the longer ones, developed by this dedicated teacher to help others, are like little mantras or pieces of advice, without any of the sarcasm you would find in many epigrams.

Hess, Lory Widmer Voir Quest for magic in life, language, & literature When Fragments Make a Whole –BibleHealingStories (Florys Press 2024) 274 pages $22.95. While it can be read solo, this book is best-suited for reading together in a church or discussion group. Gospel-healing story/poem by gospel-hearing story/poem, story-elucidation by elucidation, self-disclosure by self-disclosure, Lory determinedly (and she is one strong-willed eurythmy lady!) brings these gospel stories to life. The message can be summed up with the question Christ asks: “Do you want to get well?” Just by reading the book—and overcoming the age’s temptation to blame others—you might be inspired to do so!

Hoy, Andrew Poems for Several Voices (49 pages—not available on line). This little book, with its illustrations by Cornelius Pietzner, dazzles with its metrical and alliterative virtuosity, and is at times light as children’s feet can be, and at other times as heavy as children’s feet can be (including old children like MC Richards). It includes contemplations and a requiem, and is a joy to read, but (Na-NaNaNa-Na!) good luck finding the book, which came to me via an old friend in 1986!

Johnston, Caryl Instead of Eyes: Amazon (Hawthorne Press 1970 46 pages $14.94), Indulge Me Once: Amazon (Lulu.com 2014 93 pages $10.98), Conteur à Times Square (2023 76 pages $6.50). Refreshingly erudite poetry from the controversial author of From Boston to Birmingham (a compilation of essays… a worthy read in itself). The books get “younger” as she matures, so start with the latest book, Storyteller, with its title poem recounting her accompanying eurythmist-writer Linda Sussman on a 9/9/2002 visit to NYC. Then you’ll be ready for the surprise of her earlier poems: the biblical explorations of Au lieu des yeux, and the soul-searching, psalm-like Indulge Me. Like Rilke, however steeped in anthroposophy she may be, she declares her independence of Steiner-worship as vociferously as she rejects the illusory offerings of modernity. She’s not writing primarily for the faint-hearted, although the faint-hearted will be sorry if they don’t read the poems because there are some very tender ones (perhaps made more endearing by the contexts).

Kobrin, Una Words Between Darkness and Light: Amazon (Orchard Academy Press, 2023, 202 pages $17.18). This poet, who participates in anthroposophical section work and blesses the world on many levels (from psychotherapy to gardening and community development), introduces us to that blessed world through poetry that includes—and the word “includes” may not be sufficiently inclusive—the mineral world, plants, animals, people… The works! Another “must-have” book for anyone who appreciates the world and others and would like to become more human.

Lukas, Jody (Waldorf School teacher) I Look into the World … (presswarehouse.com) (Wynstones Press, 2021; 162 pages $17.95). These are poems written by a Waldorf school teacher dedicated to her students with poems in chapters, each for students of certain ages, starting with poems for 8- to 9-year-olds that relate to work, then, at increasing ages, to animals, plants, minerals, historical figures, and finally, at ages 13-14, to ideals. Then, there is a chapter of poems summarizing class content for each year, and finally, poetry to accompany lessons. There may be some metrical glitches in “Seaweed” and in “The Trojan Horse”, but perfection is not the point of the book; the heart is there, and consequently, the book can serve as a guide for parents and prospective teachers to see how deep an artistic commitment Waldorf teachers can make for the sake of their students.

MacKaye, Percy. As described in Henry Barnes’s book, Percy MacKaye, Poet of Old Worlds and New, Percy lived from 1875-1956, was a friend of Robert Frost, Isadora Duncan, and Woodrow Wilson’s family, and came to feel a strong friendship with the Swiss poet Albert Steffan, who he’d met via his daughter Arvia (see below). We did not spend enough time on his work in that book, but one poem in particular caught our attention, beginning: “I am a bridge—God/Let me not crack./The shore I spring toward/Needs the shore I sprang from. Back/And forward I must gaze/Through the haze,/That youth may run across me, both ways.”

MacKaye-Barnes, Christy Wind in the Grass (1931) (try ebay $20-$35) and A Wound Awoke Me: Poems (Adonis Press1994) 119 Pages-$17.14 This poet/speech artist/teacher was the primary contributor to a wonderful set of essays, For the Love of Literature ($9.96); be sure to read the interview therein to get a sense of how destiny works! Christy’s Wind in the Grass was written in her early 20s. Harpers published it and Edwin Arlington Robinson wrote the intro! Not normal treatment for a young poet, but she was not just anyone… She was Percy’s daughter and something else!… Trained in speech at the Goetheanum in the 1930s, fleeing Europe at the advent of WWII, among the first to bring Waldorf education to the US—her later poems are worth reading for the wealth of experience they bring, and their attention to the sounds of speech.

MacKaye-Ege, Arvia The Secret Iron of the Heart: Amazon.com: Books (Adonis Press,1982. 182 pages. $9.99). Arvia was one of the youth at the Christmas Conference of 1923. The above book, published by her sister Christy’s press, with the exception of some somewhat saccharine poems for Steiner, Steffan, her sister and others, has many beautiful poems that pay attention to rhyme and meter, including “O My Angel”, which could be useful for eurythmists and speech artists. While critics of the 1970s and early 1980s may not have approved of these poems had they seen them, they likely did not come across this book, and the poems (and her translations) deserve a fresh look today from critics more familiar with traditional poetry.

Matthews, Paul Le terrain que l'amour cherche (1996) 128 pages; contact poet via website for book). Paul is likely most famous for the teaching and workshops he’s led (many of the Novalis School poets appreciated these, including Garlieb, Reitnour, and Thatcher) together with his Sing Me the Creation guide to writing poetry, a book that every poetry teacher and workshop leader should have. You’ll find, in The Ground that Love Seeks, some poems that you can read for friends who are visiting or to kick off an event, especially “A Welcome,” as well as some high-energy ones like “The Wild Tibetan Donkey” that remind one of DH Lawrence’s “The Ass”, each of which is great for recitation. He’d likely prefer to be known as an inspiring and thoughtful poet than as a “poet influenced by anthroposophy.” Sorry… He’s both…

Middleton, Rowan Le troupeau volé (2018; a pamphlet—24pages £5.00 + postage) and Stars and Shadows (2025). Paul Matthews told me about Rowan, who teaches writing and literature at the University of Gloucestershire in England, and Rowan, in turn, told me of Fischer and Ziguras. Poetry Book Club enjoyed Rowan’s narrative poems, like “St. Cuthbert” and the Welsh-myth-referencing title poem, his use of alliteration and slant rhymes, the love of speech shown in “Oaklines,” and his quiet descriptions of the natural world where one can hear echoes of Hopkins’ line, “No wonder of it…” in all of its wondrous context. Stars and Shadows offered “The Fourth Task”, provoking one into thinking about how one responds to being attacked, “After Gardening”, sounding like the imagists, and other, more descriptive poems, metrically pleasing. Cool books to enlighten and warm one. More, please!

Millar, Gabriele Bradford Crackle of Almonds: Selected Poems: Amazon.co.uk (2012; 84 pages). Paul Matthews speaks in the foreword of this writer’s “unabashed romantic voice” and “generous tone”. She does not shy away… From “Death Is a Soft Word” (1977) where “Death…/You are the last and best lover;/You never defect” to “In Exile Here” (2011) where she vows to return to a hard-to-bear life as “We are not here to die an early romantic death;/we are here to serve,” she carries us chronologically through her years. Old readers may smile with recognition; young ones, with hope.

Morgenstern, Christian Nous avons trouvé un chemin (Mercury Press; the book was written shortly before his 1914 death from TB); 1994 translation by R. H. Bruce). 99 pages $13.95. Christian came to be regarded by Steiner as “a true representative of Anthroposophy” for works like this one, but had been popular earlier for poems like “A gloomy ass, fed up with life,/Said to his true and lawful wife:–/’I am so dull, you are dull,/What shall we do? Let’s die, old gal!’/But such is life, and so’t will be:–/The two lived on quite merrily.” The Path book, in a more serious but no less perceptive manner, could be life-saving reading for anyone who is suffering and either longing for or grateful for companionship.

Morrow, Nicholas Michael Misty Mountain Chronicles (“MMC”) is a series of books from Misty Mountain Publishing, including (in reverse order): When a Promise is Made to the Muse: illustrator Ami:, 6×9, 238 pages, et al –2024 $24.87; The Mirror and the Muse: Illustrator: Amy Spangler, Ami 2024 250 pages Amazon.com: Books, $17.95; Misty Mountain Musings; Illustrators: Rutledge & Spangler 2022 202 pgs $18.70; and Prequel. Dancing to the Music Illustrator: Marianna Lands 2024, 210 pgs $14.98. The MMC series is an artistically conceived and produced set of books of poetry, conveying the perceptive, loving consciousness of this dedicated writer, who, from his home near Yelm, WA, contributed much to the review of books for our poetry gatherings. A generous-spirited guy for the age to come… Good to read if you’re leaning in that direction… We also reviewed his earlier Songs to the Beloved and Her Lovers (2007 241 pages $10.99), which could be compared to a merger of the soul of Hafiz with the spirit of Rumi.

Novalis (1772-1801) Hymns to the Night; Novalis: A Performance Text – Translation by Bruce Donehower 2025, 45 pgs $9.99. This translation by Dr. Donehower (a Novalis scholar who heads up the North American Section for the Literary Arts and Humanities) was the final and historically most significant book we reviewed in our series. A century before Steiner, Novalis speaks for Anthroposophia, and Steiner acknowledges as much in his final (and earlier) lectures. This poem and Class Lessons given by Steiner and the Foundation Stone Meditation could be kept together as touchstones. The book is a wonderful resource on the origins and development of the poet and the poem as well as (I have been told) a refreshing translation of the poem.

Ploegen, Maarten Honeymoon of Mourning (Adonis Press2017) 100 pages translated by Matthew Dexter. $16.95. Maarten’s book, written during his wife’s illness and/or in the months after her death, provides a path for those feeling their way along after the loved one goes on, perhaps disregarding the “hazardous bluff area Keep Out” signs. One poem notes: “You are the webmaster now…” In another, “Doglatin”, he comes across her handwriting: “How is it possible for you/to live so intimately in a character/your being radiating through?” And everywhere, he is reaching for her in beautiful and thoughtful speech, being with her, without her… Half of married folk will need this book eventually, and the other half should read it sooner.

Polikoff, Daniel Joseph 2026-03-21 Dragon Ship (2007) McAllister & Solomon Books (abebooks.com)(74 pages $30.00). This book from Daniel, a PhD in Comparative Literature, translator, student of Rilke, and oft-published writer, is divided into two sets of poems, each in groups of seasons. The magic of the title poem and the recounting of kids’ questions in “What If a Fish Got Chicken Pox” bring one’s memories of being with young people, and then there is the whiplash of poems like “Day One,” “Letter to the Secretary,” and “Dead Man Walking” which could carry those same children, later, to killing fields/rooms. We can recognize the contrasting myths, and the prayers, and practice objectivity in the midst of the challenges to thinking presented by the poems, like Daniel’s teacher “who worked nights in a tollbooth/to keep his mind free…”

Raine, Kathleen Poèmes choisis (1988; 157 pages; $15.99). Busted! No, I am not aware that Raine had any connection to the Anthroposophical Society, but “The Hyacinth” (and the 1940 experience that led to the poem as recounted by her in The Land Unknown, together with being raised by a similarly blessed mother), the incredibly powerful “Three Poems of Incarnation,” “Rock,” and her lifelong duel with dualism (see her Defending Ancient Springs) suggest that Anthroposophia knocked at her heart’s door and said, as Steiner described, “Let me in, for I am you yourself; I am your true human nature.” Even if she wasn’t influenced by anthroposophy, she influences anthroposophists, which counts for something. Please read her books and see for yourself.

Rilke, Ranier Maria Fifty Poems – NY Review of Books translated by Geoffrey Lehmann (2025–Selected from Nouveaux poèmes; $16). Like Raine, Rilke is another who is more of interest to anthroposophists than anthroposophists were of interest to him, although I’ve read he did attend one or more Steiner lecture(s) and conversed with (and disappointed) Albert Steffen. Regardless, Rilke ended up, with Rodin’s help, looking objectively and carefully at things, and this book is his meditation on what he experienced through these studies. Having clung as long as he could to abjectivity [sic… More fun to pun on objectivity than to say abjectness], having lightened up in the interim, he is likely hanging out at anthroposophical events this time around, so be kind to strangers just in case. Poets can learn a lot from studying this little book, translated by Australian poet/anthologist/corporate tax lawyer/etc., Lehmann, who, like Villeneuve translating Steiner’s mantras, held onto the rhyme and meter of the originals… If Rilke didn’t mean it the way Lehmann writes it, he should have.

Reitnour, George Millennial Buckle, Selected Poems 1975-2025 (Amazon, 2025; 750 pages; $23.58) A bit obsessive to have dated every one of the thousands of poems written from 1975-2025, but there you have it, whatever it is… I’ve had it with this book! Anyway, go to the reitnour.com website (not the trailer manufacturer that sucks up many searchers) to read some of the poems and find links to readings on Soundcloud to decide what to do about this book.

Rennick, Peter Did I Miss A Day: This is a blog, not a paper book. You can go to the site to see the work of this prolific (answer: He has not missed many days, once he got going!) and dedicated poet who participates in Literary Section activities. Why not check it out?! It’s free! Happy Valentines!

Richards, Mary Caroline Imagine Inventing Yellow (2010 158 pages $9.80). Potter, essayist and poet who lived toward the end of her life at Camphill Village Kimberton Hills (some of her pottery sits in the Rose Hall narthex), Dr. Richards taught at Black Mountain College and Univ. of Chicago, and was friend and/or mentor to many well-known artistic people. Her poems “Music” (riffing on Steiner’s “The Human Being’s Experience of Tone,”) and “White Daffodil” accompanying the Buechner painting of the same on the opposite page are reason enough to buy this book.

Rubano, Joseph This Crazy Love Life 2025 214 pages $17. How could this wonderful poet not be widely known in anthroposophical circles in the East, and how many more like him are out there? Read “What a Poem Is” with its first line, “I really don’t know” but then listing elements of meditation which cannot but lead to poetry; rejoice in the rhythms of “Holy Speech”, which recounts his child speaking “Eat” to call him to dinner; if your spiritual practice includes Steiner’s “don’t-cry” exercise, reading “Saying Goodbye” [to his father] without tears can be your final exam.

Sass, Gregory Shadows (Amazon) Florys Books 2024,150 pages $6.20; Growing Toward the Light (Amazon) 2023, 94 pages $6.24; and Child of War (Amazon) 2025, 124 pages $25.20 (Kindle $7.90). This poet experienced WWII as a child in Germany, but has he been exposed to anthroposophy? Well, can you live in Hesperus Village in Toronto next to the Waldorf School and not be? Aren’t you getting tired of the A question? Shouldn’t we just talk poetry? Now, some of these poems are preachy, but he has cause… “Wake up and listen to people with experience so you don’t have to experience it for yourself,” he is, in essence, saying. These books are intended to sound an alarm for today. In Shadows, read “Dangerous Times” and “Why”; and in Growing, the poem “1954 Niagara Falls,” with its “I am grateful for the memory/of a sunny Saturday morning/when I was sixteen. For a few hours/I was a normal teenager…” is contrasted with the earlier poem, “My schoolmates,” describing how “They were defusing a bomb/to sell for scrap metal.” In the one book, Gregory includes Hannah Arendt’s quote relating to the ideal subject of totalitarian rule being one who is unable to distinguish between fact and fiction. Um…

Stedall, Jonathan No Shore Too Far (presswarehouse.com) (Hawthorne Press, 2017 160 pages $16.00). The preface introduces us to Jackie, the poet’s wife, a respected mathematician who died at age 64. “She didn’t like the word ‘battle’ in relation to her illness. For two years she ‘lived’ with cancer”, having “a quiet confidence in the future.” The poet says that to him, “death is a transition rather than an end”, and he started writing poems for her, and to her, about a year later. The poems are almost exclusively iambic in meter, which Steiner says is best for lyrical poetry, where we strive to enter the world of feeling, but as was the case with Frost, this poet’s striving is that of a thoughtful, contemplative person. Reading all of these poets, you come to see that these poets could benefit from reading one another; that this “school” of poets is meant to be together (as in section work!… Together with the ones now awaiting rebirth!). For example, in “God”, Jonathan writes: “what my reason tends to do… is tell me that I need a further sense,/besides those precious five,/to help me grasp/… what must indeed exist…” He could read Donaldson’s book on “Twelve Senses”! In any event, Jonathan’s book is a lovely, healing read.

Steel, Richard Sous les étoiles de la connaissance (2024 88 pages € 18,00). Richard’s poems are handwritten, and there are typed biographical notes on the facing pages, which readers found to be a pleasure to read with the poems. The first note describes the origins of his first poem at age 11: his teacher told him to write a poem about what Richard saw. Sounds like Rodin and Rilke, and indeed, there was, in Richard, a similar awe and respect for the teacher that Rilke felt for Rodin. The title of the book comes from Richard’s poem “I do not walk alone,” which is prefaced by a note saying that he is grateful that he formed no concept of guardian angels prior to meeting one. “As I walk into the unknown,/fearful yet decisively, a band of stars has been strewn/across the arc of the night sky,/shining on my path. And the stars sing softly to my soul,/reassuring me that I do not walk alone./And the meaning of the path rises up,/gradually, warmingly into my feet, as the earth meets my footsteps.” “Red Bird in Winter”, “Friend at the threshold” (most of the first stanza wants to be dactylic), and “November is an Old Friend”; you will want to read the rest of the poems, too, which you should.

Steffen, Albert The Power for Resurrection’s Flight:| Barnes & Noble (171 pages, $16.95). There are inspiring essayists and thinkers like Emerson and Thoreau who wrote beautifully about poetry, but whose own poetry is less inspiring than their other writings. If you read Albert’s poems included in this book, you might find yourself wondering, if this is the only source of power for resurrection’s flight, then how’s that baby gonna get off the ground? Oh! The melancholia!… Maybe you had to know him?… Certainly, he was a dedicated and serious artist, greatly appreciated by Steiner and vice versa. One can’t know from translation (by 18 translators!?), but he would likely have taken Steiner to heart with the iambic/trochaic/spondaic thing—maybe Albert even helped Steiner with that. Even if he did, I’ve not yet found these ideas to be applicable to poetry in English. Please read the book and convince me to get on board!

Thatcher, Philip #1 Fine Matter (2020); #2 Good Time (2022). Both available via Les Éditions Perceval$25CA+shipping from Canada. He may be as melancholic as Steffen, but his poems have a vitality that could make trees tremble when he walks among them, as in #1’s “The Trees Turned”. If you were to read just one chapter, e.g., the “Brush of Light”, you’d likely find yourself online at the Publisher’s site ordering the book. There, you find “Sunday Morning…”, “A trawler groans/as its anchor weighs/then grumbles seaward/into sunlight/nibbling at the mist”. In the context of “Who Are You”, you’ll find “Sweet New York” and “Must as Kings Come” with their lively appreciation for imaginations that could remind you of poems from Jane Kenyon’s Otherwise. But don’t stop there. In Bon temps, published 2 years later, read at least “Listening to Sofia Gubaidulina” while hearing her “Canticle of the Sun”. “Haunted by Ruwanda” and “For Jonah, at 20” should lead us to ask: what will it take to change the world? The Blowin’ in the Wind question… If your heart is already moving, these poems give companionship, and this is why Philip should be, if he is not already, one of Canada’s most beloved poets.

Ziguras, Jakob Miroirs vénitiens (342 pages 2024 $23.68). Whoa! A book of sonnets where the poet keeps to the sonnet form on the backs of pages, and then, on the facing pages, deconstructs each sonnet using the same words! This book is not a toy. Transitioning from the naivety of the descriptive form to another way of seeing, Ziguras, the Polish-New-Zealander-Australian-Whatever, seems to want to do for poetry something analogous to what Steiner wants us to do to ourselves when we break out of the sheaths of the physical, etheric, feeling and spirit and rebuild them into the ever-changing human “being sprung of the world-all” (as Ege translates Steiner). With respect to enlivening poetry, this means meditating on each of its facets: what draws our attention?… What is inspired?… Imagined?… Intuited?… Poems to love, if, as when reading GM Hopkins, you’re willing to put in the work, include: “A Taxonomy of Fates”; “Lazurus”; “The Veil Itself”; and “The Foundling Voices”. Or, if you just want a kick, read “Elvis”.

09.09.26