How to begin to tell of? Let’s maybe start with the title of the collections ‘RAW 2525’ and it was indeed the ‘2525’ part which came first. The poems, it should be said, are something of an existential journey on which it is the tenets of reflection, hope, inspiration and love which carry us on to the rest of our lives. Examples can be seen by going to ALLUSIONS.
I had often hummed along to the tune of In the Year 2525 by Zager and Evans, a song looking at developments of the human race in time to come.
The song begins with the verse:
In the year 2525
If man is still
alive
If woman can survive
They may find
The song finishes with the verse:
But through eternal night
The
twinkling of starlight
So very far away
Maybe it’s only
yesterday
25 seemed a good number for a collection and as had wanted to accompany my poems with a ‘personal take’ to give readers a little aid to interpret, to understand the motivation for writing a particular poem, even the mood and seeing when written, it was not such a big jump to arrive at the 2525 part of the title.
The ‘Raw’ word was added when I had sent a first draft to a trusted acquaintance to comment upon and she replied with a file entitled as RAW. Job done! Not only is RAW monosyllabic, onomatopoeic, and short and sharp and open and direct but is also the palindrome or ‘emordnilap’ of ‘raw’!
In a more evocative fashion I also embrace the meaning of the word ‘raw’ as evocative, from the heart, uncomplicated and unpresumptuous. Let us not go too close to the meaning of RAW spelt backward, even if many thoughts awake and disturb us.
I must confess that the world of and enthusiasm for cricket has had a role to play in the overall project. The idea of one collection soon became the idea to complete an overall project of 100 – four books of 25. My best score as a cricketer was 96 not out and if I recall right I declared on myself so as to give the team I was captaining time to force a victory. Let us see if I can get to a ton this time!
The name I use to front the poems is Haig Barclay. I am in fact Geoffrey Haig Barclay but as many lapse into the American spelling on hearing my first name I opted for the simpler Haig Barclay form, a gesture also in particular remembrance and honour of my father who was Douglas Haig Barclay.
I was conscious of the need to make the collections somewhat different in style and presentation, and so with this in mind I came up with the idea of supporting each poem with a ‘personal take’ to aid interpretation. Another welcome adjunct was to arrange for audio recordings of both the poems and the personal takes and thereby bring together the print and the voice. By going to ALLUSIONS one can listen to audio recordings of selected poems. Also, five of the poems are accompanied by VIDEO recordings from a 2018 event.
The final ploy I adopted was to break up the 25 poems with a number of photos representing the subject matter of the particular poem and to accompany with citations I had come across from well-known personalities in the arts, and rather cheekily adding a thought of my own as a footer. Examples can be seen by going to CITATIONS.
”In for a penny, in for a pound.” is what they say.
Enjoy the project!
THE BOOKS
