The Land of Gold (Paperback) - Sebastian Barker

Sebastian Barker's collection contrasts life's ecstasies with the certainty of loss; he travels through the blazing spiritual landscapes of South-West France, faces the temptations of despair head on, and finds in Greece the poet's door to redemption and the achieved life.

Sebastian Barker's collection weaves a rich tapestry from the powerful themes that have always been central human questions: how we make our journey through life, how we love those around us, what the nature of belief and of our own mortality is. In the opening sequence, Barker contrasts life's ecstasies with the certainty of loss; in 'The Land of Gold' he travels through the blazing spiritual landscapes of South-West France; while in 'The Tablets of the Bread' he faces the temptations of despair head on. All these themes then receive a masterly summation in 'A Monastery of Light', where Greece becomes the poet's door to redemption and the achieved life.

About the Author

Sebastian Barker (1945-2014). His books of poetry include Guarding the Border: Selected Poems (Enitharmon, 1992), The Dream of Intelligence (Littlewood Arc, 1992, a long poem based on Nietzsche's life and works), The Hand in the Well (Enitharmon, 1996), Damnatio Memoriae (Enitharmon, 2004) and The Land of Gold (Enitharmon, 2014). He was also author of three collections of philosophical, theological and cultural essays. A Hawthornden Fellow, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1997 and in 2002 appointed successor of John Lehmann and Alan Ross as editor of The London Magazine, a post he held until 2008.