Poetry from John Looker

Posted by: John Looker | 6 August, 2025

First Landfall in Nova Scotia

A journey’s end is uncertain.

		"Behind them lay the terrors of the great Atlantic crossing"

But

		"Where was the promised soil aching for the plough?"

I have reached the eighth poem and the series is drawing towards a close with each poem depicting the final stages of a different journey.

This is the eighth poem in a sequence that contemplates the journey, the quest, the odyssey (taken from my collection Shimmering Horizons, published by Bennison Books. There’s more about the book at https://johnlooker.wordpress.com/extracts-from-shimmering-horizons/ ).

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Posted in From Shimmering Horizons | Tags: history, journey, poems, Poetry, travel

Posted by: John Looker | 3 August, 2025

Admiral Zheng He at the Edge of the Known World

Once I’d committed myself to a series of poems about historic travellers from around the world, I had to extend my research.

I’m ashamed by how little I knew of the Ming dynasty Admiral Zheng He: the scale of his achievements, his humble origins: captured in war, castrated and enslaved, but rising to prominence as a campaigning soldier and finally admiral. This poem is about the man more than his journeys of exploration. I suppose in part it is a reflection on how we ourselves might respond to Life’s huge challenges.

“Oh the years he’s spent away, far from court

where the pale Confucianists’ word is law!”

It’s worth checking out the story of Zheng He. Wikipedia are good, as always: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zheng_He

This is the seventh poem in a sequence that contemplates the journey, the quest, the odyssey (taken from my collection Shimmering Horizons, published by Bennison Books).

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Posted in From Shimmering Horizons | Tags: history, journey, life, poems, Poetry, travel

Posted by: John Looker | 2 August, 2025

The Escape to Troy

Expectation!

“The land ahead lay pink with almond groves

And green with rows of the vine”

The promise of a bright future! That chirpy feeling: a past life decisively abandoned, the future as yet untarnished. Poor Helen.

This is the sixth poem in a sequence that contemplates the journey, the quest, the odyssey (taken from my collection Shimmering Horizons, published by Bennison Books). It was also published in an anthology, Indra’s Net from Bennison Books..

How the Pacific was Conquered

My 5th poem in this sequence lauds an astonishing maritime people. It also contemplates the mental qualities needed so badly by any of us, mid-journey – mid-way, mid-life, whatever.

“The world has contracted to this, their craft. Night and day

they watch and trim, daring – trusting – as onwards

they sail: Breath between the Sea and the Sky.”

Aficionados of form might note that this poem is a sestina, so 39 lines and a strict form of spiralling repetition. I felt that this form would help carry the sense of forward movement while apparently getting nowhere that the Pacific mariners themselves must have experienced mid-voyage.

Or that any of us might feel when mid-way.

This continues a sequence of poems that contemplates the journey, the quest, the odyssey (taken from my collection Shimmering Horizons, published by Bennison Books).

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Posted in From Shimmering Horizons | Tags: journey, life, New Zealand, poems, Poetry, travel

Posted by: John Looker | 30 July, 2025

Marco Polo … on the Silk Road

Adventure!

“… There’s neither sorrow

nor joy that could deter them now or change their minds;

this is the manner of living to which the soul inclines”

This is poem number four in the series.

This continues a sequence of poems that contemplates the journey (taken from my collection Shimmering Horizons, published by Bennison Books).

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Posted in From Shimmering Horizons | Tags: history, journey, life, poems, Poetry, travel

Posted by: John Looker | 29 July, 2025

Ruth on the Road to Judah

“This therefore was the moment of final decision.”

“and the road home tugging like an umbilical cord.”

Third in my series, this is the poem that marks an irrevocable and life-changing decision. That’s something any of us might experience, to a greater or lesser degree.

Ruth, significant in Jewish history, was born in another country with another faith. As a young widow, she committed herself to accompanying her mother-in-law back home to Judah – a decision with far reaching consequences.

I’m posting a few poems from a sequence that contemplates an archetypal journey (taken from my collection Shimmering Horizons, from Bennison Books). Each poem takes a historical or legendary figure from a different continent.

The next poem will bring us Marco Polo.

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Posted in From Shimmering Horizons | Tags: belief, family, history, journey, life, love, poems, Poetry, travel

Posted by: John Looker | 29 July, 2025

Ibn Battuta Flies the Nest

“So why this madness? Maybe as a lad
his heart had danced with the ships sailing out from the port
from Tangier, or swayed with the caravans leaving in line.”

Here’s the 2nd in a series of poems. This one, located in medieval North Africa, picks the moment of setting out on adventure.

I’m posting a few poems from a sequence that contemplates an archetypal journey (taken from my collection Shimmering Horizons, from Bennison Books).

Each poem takes a historical or legendary figure from a different continent.

1 Comment

Posted in From Shimmering Horizons | Tags: history, journey, life, new start, poems, Poetry, society

Posted by: John Looker | 28 July, 2025

The Kindergarten of Rabindranath Tagore

This, then, is the first poem in my sequence of ten that contemplate the essential stages of a journey by portraying historical or legendary men and women – from different parts of the world.

The first shows a child, dreaming of travelling the wide world.

“… here he would come at dawn into the dew and the scent of leaves,
here he would play, permitted only to dream of the great Outside”

It’s Rabindranath Tagore. And here’s the full poem:

The ten poems are taken from Shimmering Horizons, published by Bennison Books.

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Posted in From Shimmering Horizons | Tags: journey, life, poems, Poetry

Posted by: John Looker | 28 July, 2025

Behind the scenes

I have not posted new poems here for a long while, but for the past five years I have been steadily putting together a new series. I am not yet ready to share them … so

… meanwhile I thought I’d repost some poems from my last collection (Shimmering Horizons, published by Bennison Books).

The book was dedicated to the theme of the journey, the quest, the odyssey.

One section took ten historical or legendary adventurers, at successive stages in a hypothetical journey – figures drawn from every continent.

I’ve shared some of those over the past couple of weeks. They were well received by readers who bought the book. And I have been touched by the kind comments both here and on BlueSky recently.