The Preludes

Fragment from the forward. Poetry is by both form and content a true mirror of the rational-intuitive polarity of our human universe and of the greater human reality. This pervading direction of thought led me to where early experimentation in the control of accident culminated in the sub-collection Loqui situated at the end. Loqui, appears full of intended meaning, i.e.: appears to be written to mean what it says in that way. I sought to write poetry that was suffused with a musical form based upon the beautiful arrangement of precise patterns of sound and rhythm and that used itself as a means to explore unconscious meaning through conscious activity, as a way of emulating the moment of consciousness as it happens, thus {Mind at the beginning}. Opening thought, like a flower, fascinated as I was and am by the moment in which meaningless symbols become {eloquent strings of self referential} or {universal referential mythologies of sentience.} [semi-quote from the book GODEL, ESCHER, BACH: an eternal golden braid. Douglas R. Hofsadter.] and thus acquire meaning for both reader and writer alike, whilst also being sometimes a mirror to the world by trying to say some things that need to be said in as universal a way as possible. It is true also that the way sentience makes sense of things is by applying narrative and important to remember however that in poetry, narrative doesn't always look like narrative. The Preludes is more focused upon metrical experimentation, is more modernist in scope whilst keeping its attention upon the subject of spirit in material form and the struggle in a world of events that are beyond our control. It is designed to be a series of six interlinked musical phrases focusing upon the music of language. These six movements are also six interlinked narratives. It is mostly in my opinion post magic realist in poetic outlook, and quietly rooted in the south of France where I lived at the time of writing it. It attempts to be a fugue of symbolic synthesis, to be as a poet continually surprised by the unfolding of the flower of meaning in the content and the context of the poems themselves as they were written, in the same way as being new to France always being surprised by some new sight or taste or sound or scent. Seeing a hummingbird moth for the first time for example. A profound awareness of continuity was birthed in me in those years, that the years had flavours themselves. The tranquility of the landscape itself a character that embedded itself in the work as it was written. It was Gertrude Stein who believed that her attention to her own language as a writer became something filled with a deeper awareness of it due to living in Paris away from where her own language was spoken. I discovered to my own delight that she was correct. Imagine the sound of many frogs crickets and cicadas in the background, mais oui, that slow drawl of the cafe conversation, that ponderous sing song vocal chord melodic as well as rhythmic. Of course it is up to you my gentle readers to decide whether I have managed to capture that. Obviously it begins in England (as a narrative) so the first prelude is like a setting out from a place hence its reference to new footprints. Thank you for reading. Nicolas Guy Williams.