Blue in This Country

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.

Zoл Landale is not afraid to reveal her spiritual stance in this, her
fourth book of poetry. In “Creed,” she shares her philosophy: “I
believe the way to at-one-ment / is to become water.” Throughout the
book, she observes with the clarity and understanding of a Taoist monk.
In “Miracle,” as she watches her young daughter in her purple coat
entering the school playground, she admits, “never before have I seen
the sweetness / of purple / the intense bloom of it so clearly.”
“Communion” finds the poet submerging herself in peace that flows
like a river, echoing T.S. Eliot in her reference to “the still point
/ of the turning day.”

In a book in which all things are in a process of becoming, Landale
communicates her compassion for all things: for her father who feels his
life has been “one white sorrow after another,” for her mother who
swallowed silence and kept the family secrets, for her dead Siamese cat,
and for herself, “a hungry swan, a dragged-out heart.” Landale’s
poems, full of original metaphors and written in simple, unassuming
language, embrace the whole living creation.