A Far Country Here

by George Hobson, John Paris (Foreword by)

Overview

The six sections of this collection are like a sequence of musical variations on the theme of personal identity as it develops from childhood to death. The first section evokes the poet's experience of being lost, of his search for identity, and of his being found by God. Section II, in a kind of echo of Section I, celebrates the successive seasons of nature and functions as a metaphor for the movement through a life. Section III is a boisterous fugue on the high drama of clouds in the course of a day, from dawn to nightfall. Section IV, in a series of portraits of persons (and of a cat!), some dead, some living, intimates the mystery of friendship, love, and loss. Section V contains narratives, drawn from history and nature, that extend this mystery to the link human beings intuitively sense between this world and a "world elsewhere." In the final section, the poet's personal experience resurfaces as he contemplates, with wonder and gratitude, his course through the years from childhood to old age, even through death itself to the "far country" he has sensed and longed for all his life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781666720389
Publisher:	Resource Publications
Publication date:	09/03/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	136
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

George Hobson has published six volumes of poetry: Rumours of Hope (2005); Faces of Memory (2017); Love Poems for My Wife Victoria (2019); The Parthenon (2A019); May Day Morning in Yerevan (2020); and Heights and Depths (2021). A retired Episcopal priest who has lived over half his life in France working for ecumenical renewal, he has taught theology in many developing countries, including Rwanda, Burundi, Haiti, Armenia, and Pakistan.

George Hobson is an Episcopal priest and Canon to the Bishop for Theological Education in the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe. He has taught theology in seminaries and theological colleges in many developing countries, including Rwanda, Burundi, Haiti, Armenia, and Pakistan. He is author of a volume of poems and photographs, Rumours of Hope (2005), and contributor to a collective book of poetry, Forgotten Genocides of the Twentieth Century (2005).

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“George Hobson has proved himself again to be an accessible, readable, yet penetrating poet. In this volume he takes us once again into a world where beauty speaks to desolation, and grace to sorrow. I can’t imagine anyone not being enriched by this collection.”

—Jeremy Begbie, Duke University



“An anonymous French poet described the poetic process as ‘half vagrancy, half pilgrimage,’ which befits Hobson’s poetic journey. I say journey, because George is on one. Always the beggar poet seeking daily bread. He moves from scavenger to pilgrim through the terrain of his abiding curiosity. This keeps the reader alert to the nuances of language. . . . As George seeks the ‘far country here,’ he brings—returns—all readers to a wonder.”

—Nancy Anne Miller, Bermudian poet and author of Latitude, Longitude



“Hobson’s meticulously crafted poetry invites us to renew our attention to basic human experience and to our natural environment. Those familiar with the author’s writings on the horrors of modern history or the disturbing underpinnings of the Western techno-scientific project will know that his lyricism is no mere escapism, but rather a ringing affirmation, in spite of everything, of the essential goodness of creation and a call to gratitude for the gift of life itself.”

—Peter Bannister, composer and theologian

Editorial Reviews

George Hobson has proved himself again to be an accessible, readable, yet penetrating poet. In this volume he takes us once again into a world where beauty speaks to desolation, and grace to sorrow. I can’t imagine anyone not being enriched by this collection.”

—Jeremy Begbie, Duke University



“An anonymous French poet described the poetic process as ‘half vagrancy, half pilgrimage,’ which befits Hobson’s poetic journey. I say journey, because George is on one. Always the beggar poet seeking daily bread. He moves from scavenger to pilgrim through the terrain of his abiding curiosity. This keeps the reader alert to the nuances of language. . . . As George seeks the ‘far country here,’ he brings—returns—all readers to a wonder.”

—Nancy Anne Miller, Bermudian poet and author of Latitude, Longitude



“Hobson’s meticulously crafted poetry invites us to renew our attention to basic human experience and to our natural environment. Those familiar with the author’s writings on the horrors of modern history or the disturbing underpinnings of the Western techno-scientific project will know that his lyricism is no mere escapism, but rather a ringing affirmation, in spite of everything, of the essential goodness of creation and a call to gratitude for the gift of life itself.”

—Peter Bannister, composer and theologian

From the Publisher