Autobiography

Beryl Baigent is a poet; her published collections include Absorbing the
Dark, Hiraeth: In Search of Celtic Origins, Triptych: Virgins, Victims,
Votives, and Mystic Animals.

Dedicated to “P.K.” and prefaced by a quotation from P.K. Page’s
Hologram, this short book is divided into six sections. The first, The
Mind’s Road to Love, explores spiritual life, and echoes the Tao Te
Ching by honoring the elements, the five senses, and the Ten Thousand
Things. Bowering is conscious not only of the ancient philosophies that
underpin her images, but also of contemporary society with its woes and
ecological destructiveness. She reminds her readers, however, that yin
and yang can recombine to again become Tao: “Even when that image is
broken, / it is still to be thought of / in its wholeness.”

Nature’s Children explores the recombination of yin and yang, while
Autobiography simulates this rebirth, as the protagonist is “born / in
a caul,” or “found / in the cork tree at the bridge.” Experiences
remind her of Dante’s continents, and she is “hell / and heaven in
the same body.”

A chatty style is introduced in the fourth section, How Were the People
Made? The protagonists of “Mr. and Mrs. Cook” make “specimens”
from plastic, whalebone and quills, and pigmentation from stone. The
lyrical voice returns when “the author” answers the question posed
in the section’s title by explaining that her “people” were
“made with sticks, / they were made with mud,” with “cherries for
breasts, / rolled leaves for scrotums.”

Mirror Gazing represents life reflecting death reflecting life. The
final section, Interior Castle, images “the heart as a castle, / and
the world as a castle,” the individual Self having found its place in
the World Soul/Tao.

Bowering’s poetry could easily be read as love songs to her lover.
But it is more. Her beloved is “God (He or She)” in all things, and
she addresses essential nature or spirit in us all. Her words evoke
universal spiritual harmony as she expresses her deepest longings, which
are both sublime and practical.