On Stony Ground
Poems by Gordon Mason

Gordon Mason was born in London in 1937. After National Service he taught English for 12 years before becoming Advisor for English in Humberside (1975-78) and Advisor for English in Somerset (1978-1990). He took early retirement in 1990 to become a full-time writer. During the period he was Advisor for English he wrote many articles on the teaching of English for the national press and, over a fifteen year period, ran many Creative Writing courses for teachers in North Yorkshire, Somerset, Clywd and at Ty Newydd in North Wales.

Gordon Mason's poems have appeared widely in leading magazines in the U.K. and he has won major prices in such competitions as the Observer/Arvon, Blue-Nose and Sunk Island poetry Competitions. He has published three earlier collections: Eye To Eye (Lincolnshire and Humberside arts, 1980), Stone Circle (First Writes, 1997) and Fault- Lines (Peterloo Poets, 1999). 

Primal

Today I was thinking of magma that
superheated stone, unstoppable as sex,
insistent as hunger, primal as fear

Today I was thinking of sunlight
warming the earth, driving the winds,
heating the soil, rousing the seed

fueling the flower. I was also thinking
how after a storm the grass bounces back
of its own accord. How it gets up on its
own two feet so to speak, smelling of babies
and sporting an outrageous, punk hairdo.
Then I thought - how can I possibly account

for all this, except that we are only one of many
shrinking meteors balling their way through space.
 

ON STONY GROUND
Price £7.95 per copy post free (£5.30 post free to Associate Members)
Front cover illustration: photograph by the author
Publication: SPRING 2004 (87 pages laminated paperback)

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