博客來’Have A Drink, Have A Smoke’ is a narrative poem which evokes feelings of desperation, disillusionment, discontent and self-doubt. Loosely based on autobiographical events, it is a jaded teacher’s harrowing account of just one day out of an entire career.
Largely drawing on the poetic musings of Pope, Donne and Wordsworth, the author’s latest publication is similarly focussed on spiritual and metaphysical themes, complete with the perplexities of the human experience. It is wrapped up in an compelling blanket of paradoxical imagery, and set within the parameters of an ageing practitioner as he inevitably questions his place within the noble profession and within the world itself, as seen through his cynical eyes.
This is the stuff of nightmares. It is also a bleak, but accurate ’take’ on one teacher’s grasp of reality. In other words, it deals with the fall-out relating to opposing perspectives, and the carnage it creates. The teacher becomes the ’universal teacher’ as he pursues his ultimate goal: enlightenment at the end of the journey. Whether this goal is attained or not is up to you, the reader, to decide.
Although set within the frenzied world of teaching, ’Have A Drink, Have A Smoke’ goes beyond the confines of education. Here is a story which relates to anyone who finds themselves questioning the fundamentals of life and their place in the overall scheme of things. It is not an easy read, but it is a compelling one.
