Life of Poet -- William Soutar

I love this guy, he is probably my favourite poet actually. What I love about him, is that his situation (he was bedridden for the last 14 years of his life due to an incurable dibiliting disease (more on this later) but he never lost his love for writing, for humanity and for the simple things in life.

He wrote in old Scots and modern english, and championed new forms of poetry, whilst recovering and bringing to the light older lost forms.

His last collection, "Diary of a dying man", published posthumously after his death from tuberculosis is a collection of writings and poems that ranks in my top 10 books. It's just a work of an extremely brave and sensitive man, and a very intelligent and talented writer.

It was his poetry that taught me about how much, meaning and information can be condensed into just a few lines, as evidenced by his "doublets".

Here are some of his works.

(one of his doublets)

DREAMS

How often like a woman with her clothes
A dream by its concealment can expose.

(A Cinquain)

THE CHILDREN

Apples
Serenely shine
Among the darkening leaves
As children in our consciousness
Of death.

(this is a full poem, which brilliantly shows how he lived, in his bed and room and still took poet inspiration)

INTO A ROOM

Into the quiet of a room
Words from the clamorous world come:
The shadows of the gesturing year
Quicken upon tlie stillness there.

The wandering waters do not mock
The pool within its wall of rock
But turn their healing tides and come
Even as the day into a room.

Here is his website

http://www.williamsoutar.com/poetry.html

"turn their healing tides and come"

Wow, that "Into a Room" poem really offers itself as a jackhammer to breakthrough my writer's block. He's stuck in a room and he still bleeds wonderful poetry. I need to change my attitude. hahaha.

Thanks for introducing him.

I'm so glad you like his work. He was a special chap.

Kevin
I had never heard of William Soutar....thanks for sharing his work.

The wandering waters do not mock
The pool within its wall of rock
But turn their healing tides and come
Even as the day into a room
^^^^^

This really touched my heart...maybe because I can relate closely to the feeling of being trapped in a room. Very inspiring.

Like Cindy, I had never heard of William Soutar but will be reading more of his work. Into A Room shows us that even confined to a room, the imagination of a person doesn't disappear, perhaps it becomes better, if that is possible. Maybe the message is to not to feel sorry for them but to relish in the words they write for us to read. Thanks for introducing him to us.