BOOKSHOP PRAYERS by PAUL McLANEY

Although better known as a musician – an impressive number of albums under various guises – Auckland's Paul McLaney surprised recently with the beautifully presented little book The Deep Dark Hole/The Faint Glimmer of Hope which was designed like a physical metaphor of a journey into depression and, when flipped over, the pathway out.

It was a lovely, thoughtful and useful book. A sort of every-home-should-have-one production.

Perhaps encouraged by the success of that – critical acclaim, admiration for its production – McLaney now presents a very different kind of book, but a lavish hardback with the same high production values.

It is a collection of 200 short poems which range from the whimsical, humorous and absurd to thoughtful reflections, Zen-like meditations and provocative ideas.

Let Me Still Be Me, by Paul McLaney and Jeff Boyle

 

Some are seemingly simple but can give pause for thought.

Now

This is the place

Where first things begin

Here is where we find out

The fountain's foundation

The birth of creation

Here in this moment

Now

Grammar School

We're about four sentences.

Or maybe a paragraph.

Away from being friends.

One hundred or so syllables

A few full stops and then

We could try some exclamations!!

(Employ some parenthesis)

Perhaps a question mark or two??

Then end with an ellipsis . . .

Other poems are more philosophical and get under skin of an idea

The Irony of Patience

The irony of patience

Is that it improves as you age

And you have less time to apply it

The patience of irony

Is certainly not lost on me

I'm impressed

I won't deny it

Do such poems change anything or are they just small thoughts reduced and refined. There's only one way to find out and that is to read them. Slowly. Just one a day, one to ponder on for a while. Paul McLaney who admits to a love of William Blake and Spike Milligan – both of whom have quotes at the front, one thought-provoking and the other usefully silly – believes in the power of the poem. He says as much.

Last Night A Poem Saved My Life

Last night a poem saved my life

It dragged me from the depths

Of a sadness that I could not quite express

A subtle observation

Of some ordinary thing

Named my sadness

And took away my breath

and he asks you to pass on the positive

Rhymes of Cheer & Good Intent

All the things

You could have said

Why condemn

When a compliment

Will insure your time

Is better spent

With allies

Of a common bent

Sharing laughter

Plus now and then

Rhymes of cheer

And good intent

BOOKSHOP PRAYERS by PAUL McLANEY Machine Press $40 through bandcamp here where you can also hear and buy the digital album of 10 poems given musical settings by McLaney and guitarist Jeff Boyle of Jakob

.