In Absentia: Selected Poems (1991-2017)

By Spf Cameron

The selected works contained in this book revolve around eight basic and universal thoughts - Mortality, the Natural World, Brotherhood, the Senses, Time, Love, Nightfall and Displacement. By definition, our lives are unique but certain elements of each life are common to us all as human beings. These poems are designed to explore a realm where thoughts and accompanying emotions create an almost visual effect in the space where logic no longer provides us with an answer. The aim of the poetry is to permit the readers to explore their perceptions of the same or similar life experiences from the everyday to the extraordinary. Whether you find what follows good or bad, useful or unhelpful, eloquent or crass, literate of philistine, essential or annoying - these verses genuinely convey my take on the universal themes mentioned and those my mind inexorably circulates around. What remains of this description, is merely to mention all those who influence me. So many poets, writers and philosophers influence our thoughts, feelings and, inevitably, the words we inscribe on paper for others to consider. Rather than painting a broad and self-confirming portrait of my motivations, I would like to attribute my words to a diaspora of curious existences: from Robbie Burns to Bill Shakespeare; from Seneca's known writings to Plato and Aristotle; from the passion-dripping words of John Keats to William Wordsworth's take on human emotions; from my beloved American first-person narrative master Ernest Hemingway to my objective third-person genius John Steinbeck; and to the amazing craftsman of my literary prose - Kazuo Ishiguro. Ultimately, every word of every poem can be analysed, deconstructed, rethought, and rewritten a thousand times. Perhaps that is because poems often create a mental picture. In the same manner as modern day photo editing, a poet can still create, enhance, alter, filter, adjust, rotate and colour any poetic thought. I have, instead, concentrated on recording my thought and emotions accurately within the confines of my limited vocabulary and reason. The key is to remember the realm of poetry is not about creating structured, logical syntax. Rather, our words are those of any person considering the "wound of existence." That wound, perhaps best described by Sartre and reflected in Kierkegaard's notion of existentialism, enlightens us to our limited understanding of life in general. Even the most dedicated patron of metaphysics must acknowledge the outer ken of logic and reasoning. Once done, at night he or she sleeps, dreamless or not, in the same bed as we all must do - contemplating our existence, considering our feelings and emotions, and wondering about the incredible world we have somehow become a part of, volitionally or not.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 154966901X
• ISBN13: 9781549669019
• Release Date: September 2017
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 169 Pages
• Weight: 0.69 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.4" x 6.0"