Puer Poems
by Rollan McCleary
ABOUT
Love, Eros, scenes of ancient and modern Asia, the nature of acting and theatre all have their part in Puer Poems, a collection of verse in the shadow of the Puer archetype first defined by Jung.
These poems which when first composed engaged the serious attention and praise of such figures as poet and critic Kathleen Raine and Shakespearean actor Dorothy Tutin, anticipate elements of its author's subsequent work in poetic drama and the ground breaking research of A Special Illumination on the nature of gay spirituality.
An introductory essay explains the aim of the collection, tells some strange stories associated with its composition and reception, and offers controversial views about the nature and status of poetry today.
Rollan McCleary is of dual Irish and Australian nationalities, a doctor of religious studies from Queensland University, Brisbane.
He has been published chiefly in religion. His first main publication, The Expansion of God (1982) on the relations of Christianity and Asian cultures was a critical success while his A Special Illumination (2004) on the nature of gay spiritualities caused some controversy internationally.
More recently he has published Cosmic Father (2008) and Temple Mysteries and Spiritual Efficiency (2011). In 1990, his Daughter of the Sea King, an adaption of the Welsh legend of Branwyn, was broadcast as a poetic drama on the ABC in Australia.
Available on Amazon from late December 2011.
A POEM FOR ACTORS AND ONE ACTOR
PROLOGUE
Once long ago, in ancient times
In search of peacocks and of gold
A ship to Asia went astray
Yes, very far, and then was wrecked
Close to a large and desolate bay.
Few voyagers survived beyond
An ill-assorted pair: a Jewish
Rabbi and a Greek. One saw this
Was no Promised Land, the other
Cursed the barbarian wastes and
Having little else to do
Accepting fate, they soon sat down
To argue, eat, and so to die.
"If, as I've heard, you are a mage,
Then tell me", the Athenian said,
"What is the future of this place
And who will tread across my dust?"
"You ask big favours of a Jew
But as", the Rabbi sighed, "it seems
Our end must be the same, I'll try
What second sight can do". Whereon,
He spoke the words and made the signs
To free him from the bonds of time
And what he learned left both surprised....
METAMORPHOSIS
In you no doubt the sun delights
This morning as the west wind blows,
But you by instinct seek the shade
And circle the lawns by every tree.
Quite right! You must not change. With
Skin the texture of magnolia
I swear such bloom does not require
The life or hurt that strange Apollo
Might bestow on favoured friends.
For me a softer god, by whom it seems
I have received the shot from mango
Feathered dart. And that gives transformations
Too: a lot. For now the contour of your cheek,
The colour too, grows into every flower
I see which blossoms on that jasmine tree
Where you have stopped. And all my thoughts
Must upwards rise and greyly bend
Around them through its supple boughs. What
Nature's this? What ecstasy do we arouse?
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