Foreword
It is seldom that a businessman or woman enjoys the indulgence of time, or has the inclination, or indeed the ability, to stand aside from life’s racetrack to observe and analyse, almost like an outsider, what is really going on in their perception and emotional response. That may be one of the stocks in trade of the professional poet, but here we have a businessman poet who explores through the medium of his personal response a depth of what might be described as the alternative life: he sees through things, often ordinary, everyday things – objects, situations, actions, snatches of conversation – revealing new layers of perception. One is reminded of W.H. Davis’s famous line about taking time ‘to stop and stare’, or of Sir Thomas Browne’s observation that ‘even that vulgar and tavern music … there is something of divinity more than the ear discovers’.
The poet shares his insights not through any didactic skill but with a vivid directness, a highly individual voice. He has evolved techniques of his own, repetitions, overlaps, varied lengths and rhythms that have nothing or little to do with preconceived structures – villanelles, sonnets, alexandrines, aubades, elegies – but structures that can be appreciated by and have an impact on anyone, anywhere. He expresses his declared intent to make poetry more available to all by providing a ‘personal take’ to each poem – sometimes focusing on the inspiration and even time and place of writing, at other times outlining the message he attempts to convey, and in a self-effacing but also indulgent way referring to techniques which have ‘come about’ in his putting pen to paper.
Here then is a distillation of someone’s alter ego, originally gathered together for family and close friends, offering glimpses into an alternative life – but not only for family and friends. What Haig Barclay has achieved for himself may perhaps be achieved by his readers. He looks to awaken us to the gift, however hidden or undeveloped, we all of us have each in our own way, to make a personal sense of our lives, to reveal an awareness that will sustain us and in some way help contribute to others.
– Elizabeth Stone