Peter Devonald -Poet in Residence -Fifty And Fabulous
Fifty Inspirations of Haus-A-Rest
Fifty issues of Haus-a-rest is a remarkable achievement in these days of the ephemeral. It's been an extraordinary journey - so much exceptional art and writing, always perfectly selected and curated by Jenna Fox and Nichola Jane. I applaud everything that has been achieved here, an astonishing art space, a haven for the extraordinary and the blessed, a sanctuary that shines a bright light on undiscovered wonder. So many hidden gems, so much that is unique and inspiring, Haus-a-rest makes the world that bit brighter, better and more complex.
I have greatly enjoyed being a small part of this success story. I joined Haus-a-rest just half way through this journey, the right road lost, in Issue 26. I was so beguiled and impressed by the astonishing art and writing, so contemporary, so relevant and now. The talent presented gives so many new ways of seeing the world, so many impressive links and juxtapositions, so much avant-garde, the cutting edge, art that changes the way we see the world, uncharted voices creating amazing creations. The features on artists give in-depth interviews that explore their practice, vision and extraordinary inspiration.
Jenna Fox and Nichola Rodgers do the most amazing job creating this space, discovering exceptional work and curating it into a coherent online exhibition. They also consistently produce marvellous work themselves. Also praise for Michaela Hall, a fantastic writer in residence, who always produces impressive works that provides unique perspectives and great insights into the art world and beyond.
Fifty issues is a remarkable achievement and I am so proud of everything that Jenna, Nichola and all of you have achieved here. Onwards to fifty more remarkable issues. I look forward to having my mind opened, changed and inspired. Onwards to tomorrow.
Peter Devonald - Poet In Residence
Fifty And Fabulous
By Peter Devonald
This Be The Verse You Grave For Me is an exploration of the poem This Be The Verse by Philip Larkin, looking at how it was based on/ inspired by another poem, Robert Louis Stevenson's Requiem. It is followed by my version – more of a follow up to Requiem, but with a twist. It is rather cheekily titled Requiem for a Verse.
Given this is part retrospective, an exploration of my work from the last few years up to the present day based on poems:
Halcyon Days
Based on/ inspired by Robert Frost's Nothing Gold Can Stay - first published in Forget-Me-Not Press Issue #3 2022
A Memory of a Beautiful Day
Based on/ inspired by Robert Frost's Nothing Gold Can Stay - first published in Issue 8 of RIVISTA 2023 and translated into Italian
Poet in Residence: Peter Devonald
This Be The Verse You Grave For Me
I was wondering why Larkin's This Be The Verse was so called - and turns out it was a line taken directly from Robert Louis Stevenson's Requiem with the line “This be the verse you grave for me”.
Both poems share a very similar structure and rhyming pattern (though all of Stevenson’s first stanza rhymes). Larkin also extends to a third stanza. For both poems each line is 8 syllables long (although isn’t this line 7 syllables? – “Dig the grave and let me lie.”) Stevenson’s is a octastich (8 line poem) with 2 quatrains – and a varying iambic tetrameter.
Stevenson's poem is about an imagined happy homecoming in death - a short poem of longing and returning, a profound sense of accomplishment and belonging. Larkin's is very much the opposite - a savage condemnation of living and the damage parents do. A cynical screaming tirade - much loved, much vaunted, about the emptiness of living, the casual cruelty and sorrow.
Philip Larkin
This Be The Verse
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.
Philip Larkin, "This Be the Verse" from Collected Poems. Copyright © Estate of Philip Larkin. Source: Collected Poems (Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2001)
Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 – 1894
Requiem
Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.
Peter Devonald
Requiem for a Verse
Stevenson's Requiem is a hymn
to the hope and heaven we’re in,
an ode to beauty and unity ascends,
everything will be alright in the end.
All professions, all people, quietly decease,
only to eventually reach a place of peace
all of life reaches a heavenly tranquillity,
life begins and ends in serene quality.
Larkin’s poem is a shattering fury,
a flurry of angst and endless misery,
swear words, vitriol and forever spite,
a deep bitterness of bile awaits tonight.
Amazing to explode with anger and scorn,
with just eight syllables in a single line,
living to a strict poetic poem form
and don’t forget the iambic rhyme.
There is power here, a potent rage,
the savage scars of childhood parked,
do parents always fail in this day and age?
Are we all just cattle coded and marked?
I’ve always thought parenting plans are cyclical,
neglect followed by endless doting followed by
neglect, strange cycles of generations elliptical,
children rule the roast or find their own way.
These two great poems both have their say,
two different angles on the world have their day,
both with rhyming scheme and syllable deception,
after reading both does it change your perception?
Peter Devonald
A Memory Of A Beautiful Day
In a dwindling city
on a tree lined road
spring blossom
a flower opens.
The mysteries of this life
unravel
to reveal
unique beauty.
A flower opens
spring blossom
on a tree lined road
in a dwindling city.
A Memory of a Beautiful Day
Based on/ inspired by Robert Frost's Nothing Gold Can Stay
- first published in Issue 8 of RIVISTA 2023 and translated into Italian
Peter Devonald
Halcyon Days
Soft May raindrops fall gently
gently
on verdant green:
nature sparkles and glows
yawns into late spring.
Cloudy skies skip across the horizon
rain to sunshine
grey to blue
the dreams of all we knew.
Golden light shines a bright light
on everything
huddled winter becomes warming spring
the dreams of what might have been
flourish
before our eyes.
Summer is almost here
in all its auspicious wonder
you can feel it in the air
transformation
possibility
promised halcyon days
that spread blissful carpets of flowers
under us
flourish whilst you may
every summer must have its day.
Halcyon Days
Based on/ inspired by Robert Frost's Nothing Gold Can Stay
- first published in Forget-Me-Not Press Issue #3 2022
Latest News July 2024
Awards
· 2024 Delighted to be highly commended by the judge, Riley O’Connell, in The Passionfruit Review competition - In Conversation. Published in a special issue of The Passionfruit Review. https://passionfruitreview.com/in-conversation/
· 2024 In The End We All Become Stories: commended by the Hippocrates Prize for Poetry/ Medicine. Will be published in 2024 Hippocrates Awards Anthology.
Anthologies / Publications
· 2024 (m)other courage York Literary Review 2024 – theme is Spirit. Available on Amazon
Publisher : Lendal Press (June 2024) Paperback : 114 pages
Paperback ISBN: 9781915606471 Catalogue number: LP0020
https://www.valleypressuk.com/shop/p/york-literary-review-2024
· 2024 Somehow We Let The Shadow In, Winter Solstice Sonnet, Three Weeks Before You Died, Turquoise Dreams Sigh Goodnight and You Don’t See Me - Lothlorien Poetry Journal, edited by Strider Marcus Jones. https://lothlorienpoetryjournal.blogspot.com/2024/06/five-poems-by-peter-devonald.html
· 2024 Metamorphosis for a Dream, Eulogy of the Guilty. VIPERS TONGUE Spring Issue edited by Alberta Umber, set up by Billy Childish https://l-13.org/product/vipers-tongue-1-4-ly-spring-summer-autumn-2023-poetry-and-prose/
· 2024 Monthly Poetry Corner in Manchester Post and Stockport Post published July 4th.
Cultural Supplement includes my haiku, article and interview with Jenny Mitchell.
· 2024 Small tapestry, Lambayeque, Peru 1420 AD published by Voidspace: A Collection Of Very Small Things https://voidspacezine.com/small-tapestry-lambayeque-peru-1420-ad/
· 2024 The Magical Portal and Vinyl Sings a Song For You feature in the 'Poetic Maps' anthology as part of the Southwark Libraries Festival of Words week.
· 2024 Angels With Broken Wings published in the Mary Evans Picture Library. In memory/ honour of Gill Stoker - much missed xxx https://www.maryevans.com/newHome.php?so=&prv=menu
COMING SOON
· 2024 An Ending - Delighted to appear in Dreich 100 - the final ever issue of this wonderful inspirational literary journal. Dreich was a bright light in the literary world, never forgotten.
· 2024 Reminiscence - Anamnesis issue of Ephemeras Literary
· 2024 Osmosis - Molecules Unlimited Anthology #1
· 2024 Sky Dreams of Dragons, If We Dragons – to be published in an anthology Dragon Dreams: by Storm Dragon Publishing (SDP), ed. Draco Amethystus
· 2024 Tiny Butterfly Effect – SkySurfing, a children’s poetry anthology. Editor Jonathan Humble. Dirigible Balloon – December release in bookshops. Profits go to Juvenile Arthritis Research.
· 2024 Three poems to be published by WS/ Notts Garden Project
· 2024 Mesmerising Biophony Loft Books – to be released in December