Where to Start?
With some 6000 poems to choose from, where do you start? The poems below are the ones I selected for inclusion in the first published anthologies. In several cases, they are extracts from longer poems. Dates are given, as in some cases other poems have the same title. Songs of the Vagabond illustrates the thematic range of his writing. Birds, Bees and Beasts illustrates his nature poetry. John Bradburne on Love illustrates his theological poetry. I would suggest starting with the poems in Songs of the Vagabond. One thing missing from the anthologies so far are the poems written in praise of individual Mtemwa lepers. Many of these can be found in ‘A Jumbly Alphabet’. |
Songs of the Vagabond (1996)
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I Weaving rhymes
Gay matter for a graying mattoid (9 July 1978)
If only I had the time (14 February 1978)
Talisman (5 March 1969)
II Weaving Mary
Reminiscence (20 August 1971)
Ad tertiam (29 January 1970)
Ad sextam (29 January 1970)
Ad nonam (29 January 1970)
Avon’s above (2 July 1969)
Overflow (25 March 1969)
Revels (August 1971)
Aubade (March 1969)
A ballade of a rectory garden (7 April 1975)
To the Fairy Queen (20 July 1978)
Lauds on Ladyday (25 March 1969)
Greensleeves (24 September 1973)
III Chooser, Chosen, Choice
Spring is in the air (21 July 1978)
For a peal of eight (6 March 1978)
Cogito (26 August 1973)
Ad completorium (26 August 1973)
Sheer prestige (22 January 1975)
Discretion (31 August 1973)
IV Dreams and desires
Come follow (18 March 1973)
Love (22 September 1971)
Ad Mariam (14 June 1978)
Steep gradient (26 April 1969)
V Haunted by God
Alma mater (1 April 1969)
Excelsior (20 August 1971)
Ritornello (28 May 1978)
Idyll of the spring (27 January 1969)
In magno silentio (28 May 1978)
The road to Assisi (9 July 1978)
Salve, San Antonio (13 February 1970) |
God shave the Queen (30 May 1978)
VI Alive with joy
Ornithological images (28 August 1973)
Of swans (22 February 1978)
Here and there (13 March 1978)
Of ravens (23 February 1978)
Second vespers (January 1978)
Prime (11 October 1971)
Nascent apiary (21 July 1973)
Nocturne (22 July 1973)
Quis ut Deus (15 September 1971)
VII Neon-lights and ribbons
A ballad of an ancient usher (16 February 1978)
Aubade (March 1971)
On the feast of Corpus Christi (28 May 1978)
Cryptic chaplets (15 August 1978)
Meridian (24 February 1978)
A Christmas message (May 1978)
VIII Forth on pilgrimage
In principio (24 August 1973)
Brewing (30 October 1978)
Untearfully at tierce (29 May 1978)
Unfearfully at sext (29 May 1978)
Cheerfully at none (29 May 1978)
Quid nunc? (August 1971)
Ad tertiam (15 March 1971)
IX Shalom, Mashonaland
Chigona (27 August 1973)
By moonlight (6/7 October 1973)
Kraaldom (August 1971)
Little world of Dunlopillo (19 February 1970)
Momento Kahoto (8 June 1978)
Josephite (30 January 1970)
Paradise tossed aside: incipit lamentatio (August 1978)
X Envoi
Beedom attained (14 August 1973) |
Birds, Bees, and Beasts (2007)
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I Creation’s shapes
One wonders much about Creation’s shapes (24 September 1988)
High in the Heavens long migrations be (1955/6)
Privileged (January 1975)
Nomadsland (January 1963)
Remarkable animals (extract from ‘Ut unum sint’, 1956/6)
Midsummer night (1950)
A ballade of the Word of the Lord (10 September 1975)
God all creatures made (extract from ‘Ut unum sint’, 1955/6)
A ballade of a prayerlike weal (28 February 1979)
II Heyday Beedom (extract from ‘A Ballade of a true commonwealth’, 11 April 1975)
Maybe matter for a morning (19 April 1969)
A letter from Silveira (extract from ‘Letter to Mother’, 25 July 1967)
Beedom attained (14 August 1973)
Maybe for longer (30 April 1969)
Honey or The Queen Bee’s knees (1969)
Heyday freedom (30 April 1969)
Silveira Ho! (8 February 1969)
Honey-bees (extract from ‘Letter to Mother’, 2 May 1969)
Mayday beedom (1 May 1969)
Rhododendrons (date unknown)
Hive alive at Lauds (22 July 1973)
Hail, Saint James the Greater! (25 July 1973)
Ave, Saint Anne (26 July 1973)
Of a Sunday in Lent (22 February 1970)
Heyday beedom! (29 March 1970)
For First Vespers of the Ascension 1969 (14 May 1969)
The buzzing of innumerable bees (June 1969)
Some observations (23 July 1973)
Hail, Saint Alexis! (17 July 1973)
III Kings of Things and Wings
Butterflies (1968)
Shaishai (1968)
Swallow-tail butterflies (14 August 1978)
Moth (1958)
Cobwebs (1950)
Mosquitoes (18 February 1974)
Night flight (June 1949)
Mosquito (31 January 1970)
Flies (date unknown)
Wings (1949)
IV Small and Great and Middle-sized (extract from ‘Owed to Saint Cecilia’s Day’, January 1963)
Adam and Eve (extract from ‘Gad’, January 1963)
Baboons (February/March 1964)
Corollary (February/March 1964)
Gray’s effigy: baboons (1978)
Baboons dreaming (extract from ‘The Kapitoline Will’, 17 April 1969)
Irenic (1968)
Consider the cattle (extract from ‘Oculi semper ad Dominum’, 1958)
Mooning at noon (25 July 1978)
Pax Christi (November 1949)
Dog (1968)
Cats and dogs (extract from ‘Ut unum sint’)
The Passing of Simba (10 June 1969)
Garbage (11 April 1964)
By The Otter of Saint Mary (17 June 1978)
Pastorale (September 1973)
Pangolin (September 1969)
Frogs in bogs (30 November 1978)
Frog (1949)
Local idiot - J.R.B. (1950)
Shear sheepishness (1949)
Of creepy-crawlies (1949)
Of earthworms (22 February 1970)
Nimrod (28 February 1974)
Getting longer (21/22 February 1978)
Getting stronger (21/22 February 1978)
Pandean (1968)
Nature (extract from ‘Prelude’, 1958)
A ballade of a grateful vale (19 February 1979)
Elephant (18 March 1973)
Lioness (1968)
V Delightful Visions (extract from ‘Of angels and birds’, 20 February 1970)
Parliament of fowls (28 February 1974)
Serenade (10 August 1968)
A ballade: O rara avis (28 January 1975)
A ballade of a migratory chorus (13 May 1975)
All Saints Eve in Mashonaland (31 October 1968)
Spring morning (1949)
The ballad of Piper’s Vale (13 February 1979)
Rural remarks (12 October 1972)
A ballade of a bullfinch (14 February 1975)
Bullfinch song (1949)
Cole tit (1949)
Seagull (1949)
Blackbird (1949)
A ballade of an Indian river (18 August 1975)
A ballade of an augur-buzzard (9 April 1975)
A ballade of an apogee (21 February 1979)
Ode to the cock (4 June 1972)
Bantam cock (1949)
Of cocks and hens (21 February 1970)
Aubade to a bird (26 August 1973) |
Primed limerick (1 July 1975)
That tintinabulating bird (3 March 1969)
Quest-I-on-air (1972)
Coppersmith-bird (1968)
Ambiguous ubiquity (30 July 1971)
Cor anglais (19 February 1974)
A ballade of a heart-throb for belladonna mine (14 May 1975)
Wild geese (1949)
Wild geese (prose passage, 1949)
By the still marsh (extract from ‘Ut unum sint’, 1955/6)
Quite fantastic (25 March 1969)
Cheloop (12 April 1969)
Watch and prey (1972)
‘Haiku’ my cue (24 April 1969)
Peregrine falcon (1949)
Avéary (March 1959)
Kestrel (1949)
Veni, creator spiritus (10 February 1970)
In festivitate (28 June 1978)
A ballade of the last day in April (30 April 1975)
A ballade of a Mayday morning (1 May 1975)
Sumer is i-cumen in (date unknown)
Oocuck (26 February 1969)
Jackdaws of Saint Hugh (May 1949)
Jackdaw (by the sea) (1949)
Rooks, flying homeward (1949)
Kingfisher (1949)
Kingfisher in Devon (1949)
Moorhen (1949)
Lourie (extract from “Memento, homo, quia pulvis est’, 13 September 1971)
African evening (10 May 1970)
Sunday morning (18 July 1976)
A ballade of a gusty day (12 August 1975)
Hammerkop (15 May 1974)
A ballade of a praeludium (18 July 1974)
Happy landing: how? (October 1973)
A ballade of a hammerkop nigh (24 September 1974)
Powderham - Devon (1949)
Four flying swans (1949)
Swan’s egg (1949)
Jerusalem (1949)
Barn owl (1949)
Owlcry (August 1971)
Meyer’s parrot (1969)
Skylark (1949)
Lift up your hearts (1949)
Roving (13 August 1978)
Water-colour (25 February 1969)
Secretary-birds (extract from ‘Letter to mother’, 26 March 1969)
Harvest time (1950)
Ballad of the storks (7/8 February 1969)
Heron (1949)
Chapter in the ruins (date unknown)
En passant (November 1968)
Of the migration of birds (13 March 1978)
Mallards (1949)
A ballade of a mallard imaginaire (21 August 1975)
King’s idyll (5 June 1976)
Wagtails (22 April 1969)
Pied wagtail’s nest and pied wag’s tail coat (1949)
Pied wagtail (1949)
Dart River in July (1949)
Angelus (extract from ‘Angelus’, 1958)
Fire (23 April 1969)
Mashonaland (extract from ‘Return to Mashonaland’, 1968)
Twinspot unspotted (23 April 1969)
On a theme (monotonous) (27 March 1969)
Siesta (14 September 1969)
Spring in Mashonaland (13 September 1971)
Serenade (12 February 1970)
Balladette (13 October 1971)
Eve of Corpus Christi (June 1969)
A ballade of a colony of weavers (18 February 1979)
By the masked weavers at the stream (6 June 1978)
Consider the birds (24 February 1979)
Gaudete gaudentibus (February 1979)
Pin-tailed widow-bird (1969)
From the bottom (3 October 1968)
November (November 1949)
Birds of St Francis (extract from ‘Ut unum sint’, 1955/6)
VI Most Splendid Talisman (extract from ‘Eagles’, 1949)
A ballade of a sister-soul (24 February 1977)
Surveying Chishawasha (25/6 October 1968)
Watching eagles - 1 (27 October 1968)
Watching eagles - 2 (29 October 1968)
Watching eagles - 3 (29 October 1968)
Watching eagles - 4 (30 October 1968)
Watching eagles - 5 (30 October 1968)
Watching eagles - 6 (1968)
Mercury (22 August 1972)
Interval for thought (2 October 1968)
Eagles’ quotidian (31 October 1968)
Sicut novellae olivarum? (2 November 1968)
No ill wind (29 November 1968)
For sight of eagle (extract from an untitled poem, October 1968, cat no. 68.46)
Panpipes (September 1969) |
John Bradburne on Love
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I Being in love
Amour (10 April 1972)
Idyll (extract, 1971)
Being in love (March 1971)
Love upon earth (extract, 1971)
Agape at Eros (24 September 1973)
The burning bard (12 October 1973)
Division on a ground (1968)
L’ensuite (extract, 13 February 1977)
Suavitas (May 1967)
I could eat him (him or her) (1968)
O beata solitudo! (29 July 1971)
Of intuition (20 February 1970)
Rued O? (extract, 24 February 1977)
‘La follia’ (20 March 1977)
Corollary (extract, 11 May 1970)
‘De torrente in via bibet’ (2 October 1972)
I have immortal longings (extract, 15 March 1969)
II What is love?
Love (extract, 22 September 1971)
Eirenicon (21 March 1977)
Lovesong (29 July 1971)
In nomine Domini (26 July 1971)
Romeing in the gloaming (1972)
A prologue to the beginning (extract, September 1977)
Fulcrum (12 October 1973)
Praeludium (extract, January 1975)
Angelus Domini (extract, February/March 1974)
Quite fantastic (25 March 1969)
‘O lux Beata Trinitas’ (extract, 5 August 1973)
Monachus Aumnipotens (extract, date unknown)
Continuo (29 July 1971)
III Loving Trinity
Logos (12 February 1974)
A ballade of a beginning of a March (1 March 1978)
Ut unum sint (extract, 1955)
In medio nocte (7 October 1953)
‘Aeterna lux, Divinitas’ (5 December 1968)
De Trinitate (1 April 1970)
Love’s Person First (1 August 1974)
A ballade of a non-theologian (16 August 1975)
‘Cogitationes cordis mei’ (February/March 1974)
‘Quem pastores laudaverunt’ (21 March 1974)
Tersely (November 1975)
A ballade of the Blessed Trinity (23 March 1975)
A ballade of an analogy (1 March 1976)
De Trinitate (19 February 1970)
At the midday Angelus (28 June 1974)
To Triune love (29 June 1974)
Heat, light and sound (3 June 1979)
Over sext (31 August 1973)
A ballade of a matins and lauds (26 July 1974)
Continuo (10 August 1968)
Climbing (6 March 1977)
Of One in Three (extract, January 1975)
Sicut in coelo et in terra (5 July 1974)
IV Love of Jesus and Mary
This above all (24 March 1977)
Aubade (March 1971)
Well made was Miriam (extract, March 1959)
Ave Maria, Ave Crux (22 August 1974)
Wedlock (1975)
Aubade (10 June 1971)
Love (April 1974)
Sicut cervus ad fontes (June 1949) |
Chansons gaies (13 October 1973)
Eirenicon (1968)
Drooling (31 January 1978)
Antony and Eros (15 March 1969)
Ut unum sint (extract, 1955)
Frequently asked (3 September 1973)
In me minor for flute and strings (extract, July 1976)
Well lit on a little brandy (March 1971)
My Lady Melody (10 June 1971)
Our Lady of Good Counsel (6 February 1977)
At the sign of the tricolor (15 March 1977)
Coming down (6 March 1977)
Om (extract, January 1963)
Our Lord is Love Incarnate (21 July 1978)
V Love in Mtemwa
A ballade of the leaping of the lepers (October 1973)
De Antonia (15 February 1970)
Baucis and Philemon (1972)
Entente (1972)
A blind leper in search of God (1974)
Oculi mei semper ad Dominum (extract, 13 March 1977)
In Jordan: crossing (9 May 1970)
Regnum (1971)
Eirenicon (2 February 1970)
Spiral (6 May 1970)
De amore liberorum, librorum, libertatis (1971)
Quis ut Deus? (18 August 1971)
VI Love in creation
De Beata Trinitate (extract, May 1967)
Love is God (7 October 1973)
Harping on (14 February 1977)
A ballade of a matins and lauds (20 September 1974)
Our likeness to Our Father God (date unknown)
Serenade (1968)
Metaphysics in Passiontide (1971)
Best amongst Eastern minds (extract, 1968)
Aubade to outalong (extract, 11 July 1971)
Love is the Triune substance of the Lord (7 October 1973)
Rudo (extract, 11 February 1977)
Aubade (25 June 1974)
Ut unum sint (extract, 1955)
Uncreate (5 March 1977)
Fulfilling (extract, 3 January 1977)
VII Love is the lesson
One-finger exercise on a Monday Morning (24 July 1978)
Rudo rehearsed (extract, 5 March 1977)
A ballade of a dunce innane (23 July 1974)
On hell (1977)
Sin and sinecure (1971)
Inclemency (September 1969)
Is Love’s Labour Lost? (22 August 1974)
Turris Davidica (9 March 1972)
Unto this last (14 February 1970)
The Pharisees (extract, 25 March 1979)
A ballade of a Monday morning (extract, 18 August 1975)
Sexagesima (4 February 1972)
The Sacred Heart of Jesus (1949)
Good morrow (date unknown)
Epilogue (29 September 1973)
Passiontide to Easter (extracts, 12 March 1978)
Elixir (1973)
A definition of time (11 October 1971)
Consolatio Dominae (extract, 1 July 1978)
Eclecticasstease (extract, 15 February 1978)
A ballade of a non-Pelagian (extract, 2 March 1976) |