Year Anthology

Here it is! The Best of Alien Buddha 2023 encapsulated in a single volume, showcasing the best authors.

What a surprise! My poem The Reckoning is among an impressive list of works in the Collection. The Best of Alien Buddha is an annual anthology which showcases the brightest talents of any year, and the choice of the Editor. Red sent me a proof including my poem The Reckoning from All Revolutions Begin This Way. All I had to do was nod my approval for editorial purposes. It was an unexpected honour seeing my poem appear among a plethora of works in a Collection of some 400 pages.

The Reckoning first showcased in March 2023 in Alien Buddha Zine #49, as a preview of All Revolutions Begin This Way. It was perhaps a foreshadowing of its later appearance in a compilation of best works.

The Inspiration

The poem came to me while exploring an area in the Waiorongomai Valley, a precipitous incline above the New Era Battery. Daylight was fading as we, intrepid explorers, picked our way down a track designated for ‘fit trampers’. I had to inch my way down backwards. The close proximity of earth, its pungent, loamy odour, and the lack of sunlight provided the materia which eventually forged the poem. I was transported to times and places some 24,000 years ago.

Later, I realised I had become akin to an Oracle, able to view the past and present simultaneously. What I envisaged alluded to some ostensible mystery promulgated by an article of archeological interest in the UK. The writer desired to weave allure around the topic, particularly the significance of ochre smeared bones. In an instant, I had penetrated the veil and saw many lives unraveled before me. The meaning of all the actions of those who lived then, and now, fell into my lap.

As Emily Dickinson said, poetry tells the truth in slant. It is not necessary to state bald facts. The implied, the alluded-to, the simile or metaphor, provide welcome descriptive vehicles for poetry. Their meaning becomes all the more cogent and penetrating.

The juxtaposition of time and place between an abandoned gold mine in New Zealand and some far-flung place in Celtic Britain jarred. It could not have been more unlikely – or could it? That is perhaps a question to explore in a future poem.

The Delphic Oracle

Further reading led me to some fascinating discoveries about the Oracle. I began knowing nothing. The descent down the New Era track unearthed dark insights I never knew were possible facts. In the very early days, circa 8th Century BC, there was no temple yet built at Delphi. The Oracle was lowered into a dark earthy pit and there, inhaling sulphureous fumes from the bowels of Gaia, made contact with visions of past and future. I inhaled the raw earth in my descent and connected with the ancient world.

In the realm of mystery there is no separation of time or place. Connections work unhindered and create unexpected magic.

All Revolutions Begin This Way is available to buy here.