Monday, 9 May 2016

Echoes of Eckhart by Richard Skinner



Richard Skinner is a poem that I have great fondness for and he offers us here a joyous little book.

His starting point is the 13th Century mystic Meister Eckhart – but other than the short introduction Skinner provides here I know nothing of Eckhart, but that didn't stop my enjoyment of these poems.

Each is an encounter, between Eckhart and the world around him, and sometimes God. It is a playful God, the one who can't help but answer a question with a question, who pops up when you are not seeking him, who is absent when you are...

The poems standalone, but also run together, with a theme flowing across two, three, four.

A couple of examples

You want to see me?
Then look deep
Into your soul

Doing as he is told
Meister Eckhart looks deep
And deeper still

Nothing here!
He exclaims

Quite so!
Nothing answers

And

A game
Of hide-and-seek
God is Cunningly concealed

Meister Eckhart is
At a loss

God deliberately
Clears his throat

And

Another year gone!
Another year older!
Meister Eckhart sighs

Not so! Not so!
I'm as young as ever!
His soul replies

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