Paint Yourself

Tom Burgess is a Bristol-based poet `who has lived to breathe in new art'. He worked as a primary school teacher and has published numerous poetry, as well as short prose.

Great places for watching the sun set: Narroways, Purdown and even the Community Garden. Tom Burgess invites us to do just that. He hopes that his poems collected in Paint Yourself may inspire us to gain freedom by engaging with 'the regular miracle of sunsets'. His ecstatic response ranges through countries and philosophies, rich images jostling with demanding ideas, colours with movement. The meditation moves through three stages, from Loosening through Breaking to Binding. At the beginning the scene is set with a newly-told myth of the sun's own history while at the end the poet resolves to carve his own path. A Journey into Sunsets inspires us to contemplate rather than just see and so to join its author on his way. - Review by Chris Thirlway