Route 77 is a biography and poetic travelogue; it is wisdom; it is esoteric; it is funny. Spirituality gets Dorian’s attention, as does nature, philosophy, psychology, animals, dreams. It offers a paradox of mysticism and the concrete, where eclectic material jumps around like beans in a sizzling pan (he includes a Greek recipe.) Dorian dubs this original format as a kind of Babushka with seven dolls. Imagine each doll decorated with eleven symbols and images. Holograms.
This innovative approach also serves as a creative writing manual, a sequel to his The Writer’s Voice (1998). Dorian’s mastery of teasing-out the right words prompted one reader to say, I confess I had goose bumps – was it the writing or the red wine? How wonderful when metaphor and fruity tannins coalesce. Bios are often a once-off read. This book deserves a second, or third foray with its poems, prose and personality. We encounter Dorian’s commitment to personal development through his insatiable curiosity and his love for the land he treads. The tortoise (his logo) carries him to far off places:
the back of this land is tortoise shell,
its case cast by ancient waves,
its plates taken from ancestral fish.
….
and led by an amphibian chin,
in folk-tale steadiness,
it crawls ever towards water.
(Tortoise Land)
สารบัญ
Contents
FOREWORD i
Seven Circlings – travelling on the back of a Tortoise v
PREAMBLING THROUGH THE YEARS xiii
ONCE THERE WAS A DORIAN 1
A Story about a Storyteller 1944 ‒ 1956 (0-12) 1
Bill Haley, Pat Boone, Elvis and teenage me jiving in luminous
green socks 1957 – 1961 (13-17) 27
Encountering the Poets 1962 ‒ 1965 (17-21) 33
Teacher Man 1966 ‒ 1968 (21-24) (title courtesy of Frank
Mc Court) 41
The Fairest Cape 1969 ‒ 1978 (24-29) 46
Wrist and Rib 1973 ‒ 1978 (29-34) 52
Wild West Land Namibia: Teacher Trainer (1979‒1983) 60
University Days 1984 ‒ 1997 (40-53) 67
Leaving Prof Behind 1998 ‒ 2003 (53-58) 90
Under the Helderberg 2003 ‒ 15 (59-72) 102
Pringle Mingle Bay 2016 ‒ 2022 (72-77) 107
viii
EDGE MOMENTS 123
Across a Crowded Room 123
Eating with the Troll 125
Images, Triangles, You and Me 130
Leo 140
Ho Spice 146
The Same Rainbow’s End 150
Galway Bay and Billy Collins 151
Walking on Water – North America 154
Living the Stories I tell: The Faces of Bulawayo 156
Petty Thieves and Angels 161
Hiking Haiku 163
FAITH 169
The Pliable Eclectic Bubble 169
A Myth? What is a myth, Grandpa? 173
Listen with the Deep Ear in your Chest 177
Inhabiting the City of Synchronicity 181
Give us this Day our Daily Quote 184
The Feminine Face of God 189
Rabbinical Mysteries 192
Creativity, Imagination and Midrash 197
A Buddhist Flower 203
Indian Mythology 207
Mystics and Gnostics 209
ix
VOCARE 213
Tortoises all the way down – why I do what I do 213
Cosmic Land and Ocean: Logo 220
A World of Stories 224
Two Sisters: UNICEF and SLED 229
Please Sir, may I have some more? Namibia 231
Mentoring: You one foot, me the other 233
Can you Speak Cow Talk? 234
Reflickology, Your Life, Your Movie 239
Living the Myth 241
Words on a Mirror: Remembering our Stories 244
WRITING LETTERS 249
No, no it happened like this 249
Taking Words for a Walk: November 2016 252
Maps and Scape in Storyland: April 2017 255
Postcards from the Edge, August 2017 260
GAGA, January 2018 262
The End of Story? June 2018 265
The Phantom in the Word: Writer’s Block, April 2019 270
Anansi the Spider, August 2019 273
World Concern, Social Distancing and Space, April 2020 276
We are Here, June 2020 279
Losing and Finding Words, January 2021 281
ACHILLES HEAL – IN POETIC PRAISE OF HEALING 289
The Myth of Achilles 289
Alpha to Omega: Letters, Breath, Music, Words and Meaning 290
Our Beginnings – Growing Soul through Poetry 297
Ecology: Trees, Poetry and Belonging 303
Acorn to Oak Leaves 311
Observing Worlds: Retraining the Eye 314
Ritual, Mantra and Meditation 319
Ways with Words – Ambiguity, Paradox, Irony and Word Play 322
Saved by a Poem 326
Temenos Garden of the Beloved 328
Praise Poems 331
LOVES WITHIN, LOVES WITHOUT …………………………… 337
The Night Novel ‒ Dreams 338
Dream Chef 340
Crossing Orange ‒ River Sea Mountain Forest 345
Eleven Just Men 349
Eleven Just Women 357
Child Tribe 369
Stories within Stories 382
Music of the Spheres 391
Otherworlds 393
The Emmaus Road, the Inn, the Traveller and a Journal 395
27 July 400
xi
ENDWORDS ………………………………………………………………. 407
Wealth Cycles 407
Fare Forward Traveller 409
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Dorian is an academic, bohemian, acclaimed poet, raconteur and writing coach. Dorian left the safe but confined harbour of professorship to write, and to teach people to write. Dorian has helped thousands of writers, in Europe, The Americas, Africa and Australia, improve their prose and tell their story.
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