(Taken from the cover note)
The poems in this book are mainly autobiographical, personal and intimate, with an emphasis on spiritual growth. He oftens adds to this his own blend of humorous observation… His aim is to provide a western Buddhist’s colourful spectrum of experience, feeling and vision in language open to a broad public.
See Marcus reading two poems from this book here.
an extract from
PRISON STREET
“The universe has an infinite number of centres
and I am one of them” – Roger Green
I discover, as though for the first time,
The basic pleasure of existence,
The total freedom from time and weight.
I find myself walking to the butcher’s
Light-heartedly, nothing much in my head.
My shoes tread the cobblestones airily.
I notice my surroundings, and approve.
That dingy cafe is a restaurant now.
Might all of us be tourists in a city
That needs no psychiatric hospital?
Some more fortunate people may experience
“The unbearable lightness of being” …
An exciting champagne feeling
Which puts them on top of the world
And makes them want to kick their shoes off.
This manic-depressive, however, gets
One hell of a thrill from “normality”
(I’ve put the word in inverted commas) –
Just being the right man in the right place,
Doing his thing while harming nobody,
An ambulant microdot called Marcus.