There’s something about driverless cars that really bothers me. I know they are piled high with clever tech, but at bottom who decides what they should do in an emergency?
This thought took form in a poem.
It was a long hot day
and three philosophers emerged from the workshop
for a cool beer in the shade.
Maybe I’m mistaken? Here’s the full poem anyway:
Posted in other poems | Tags: philosophy, poems, Poetry, science, society
No, I don’t write poems about cats.
Well, maybe just once.
And maybe that one poem has found its way into an anthology …
Yes, the fleas were a shared burden
but we learnt how to help.
Other than that his needs were few:
Here’s the full poem:
And here’s the book. It’s available through Amazon (edited by Charlotte Cosgrave, published by the British indie publisher Rough Diamond):
I have a feeling the anthology will sell well.
Posted in other poems
This poem has just been ‘Highly Commended’. But is it a nature poem? Or a people poem? Or something else?
” … whoever they are, with their duplicitous sideways gait
and wearing their bones outside,
they prompt us to gasp at life, at Life in spate …”
I entered the poem in the 2026 annual competition of the Edward Thomas Fellowship.
The judge this year was Daljit Nagra so I am honoured that he selected it.
The three winning poems have been published on the website at https://edward-thomas-fellowship.org.uk/the-edward-thomas-poetry-competition-2026/
Copyright John Looker
Whether it’s nature, people or something else, I hope you enjoy it.
Posted in other poems | Tags: belief, nature, philosophy, poems, Poetry, religion, travel
It’s been Jane Austen’s week!
All the coverage of her 250th anniversary has freshened up my enthusiasm for her novels – and brought to mind the visit my wife and I made to the home she shared with her sister in Chawton, Hampshire. I wrote a bit of verse about it.
Here it is again:
In Jane Austen’s House
When I wrote this I adopted the English sonnet form, perhaps feeling that I needed something elegant and old-fashioned. That was eleven years ago. I would handle it differently now but it still captures the scene for me.
There has been a huge amount of hype this week about Jane Austen but, my word!, doesn’t she deserve it!
Posted in Figures from Legend & Literature | Tags: history, literature, poems, Poetry
Night draws near, brother ass
pale sister moon ascends the dark
Brother ass of course, after St Francis, being the body. And we know what night signifies here.
It’s the first week of December, when each year I remember the late New England poet Cynthia Jobin. She died this week in 2016, missed by a long list of readers and friends.
Her last poem was this one, posted with clarity and bravery as she knew that her death was close. Sixty nine people ‘liked’ this poem at the time and about twenty commented.
She posted a great number of poems, some profound, some entertaining, some very light. Her poetry was published through Amazon by Bennison Books, a British independent publisher, see https://bennisonbooks.wordpress.com
Cynthia Jobin’s own website (still available) is at https://littleoldladydotnet.wordpress.com/
I wish she had not adopted the nom d’écran ‘little old lady’ as she was anything but that.
I’ve remembered that it was five years ago this month that a poem of mine, that had been highly commended in New Zealand, was read aloud in the Dunedin University Bookshop.
The poem? ‘Conversation with a Sea Lion’. Not really a nature poem.
Here it is:
Read More…
Posted in New Zealand | Tags: belief, family, life, nature, New Zealand, poems, Poetry
A wet grey Monday morning: the archetypal Monday.
Spurs fixed? Check.
Sword polished? Check.
Breakfast stains wiped off breastplate? Check.
Mount that steed!
Posted in miscellaneous posts | Tags: autumn, life, society, weather
A double mystery:
Why was I never taught about the medieval West African emperor Mansa Musa, his wealth, his learning?
And what happened to his elder brother who abdicated the throne, sailed out on the Atlantic and vanished with all his fleet?
With this we have reached the penultimate poem in my series on historic journeys.
This is the ninth poem of ten that contemplate the journey, the quest, the odyssey (taken from my collection Shimmering Horizons, published by Bennison Books). There’s more on this site at https://johnlooker.wordpress.com/extracts-from-shimmering-horizons/
I have remarked elsewhere (on BlueSky) that I have mixed feelings about this poem. It’s in free verse but too close to prose for me now. However, i repost it because it has its unique place in the series.
Published by Bennison Books, 2015, priced at cost, through Amazon
Poetry from John Looker 