Susan Jones – Writer

The September issue of The Great War magazine has arrived with my article – The Gentle Poet, The Life and Death of Rupert Brook in there.  It will be available here in a couple of weeks.  I’m quite proud of it as it took quite a while to research but I found it really interesting as I’ve always loved reading his poetry, and wanted to know more about the person behind the poems.  Here’s one of them.

These I have loved.

White plates and cups, clean-gleaming,

Ringed with blue lines; and feathery, faery dust;

Wet roofs, beneath the lamplight; the strong crust

Of friendly bread; and many-tasting food;

Rainbows; and the blue bitter smoke of wood;

And radiant raindrops couching in cool flowers;

And flowers themselves, that sway through sunny hours,

Dreaming of moths that drink them under the moon;

Then, the cool kindliness of sheets, that soon

Smooth away trouble; and the rough male kiss

Of blankets; grainy wood; live hair that is

Shining and free; blue-massing clouds; the keen

Unpassioned beauty of a great machine;

The benison of hot water; furs to touch;

The good smell of old clothes; and other such –

The comfortable smell of friendly fingers,

Hair’s fragrance, and the musty reek that lingers

About dead leaves and last year’s ferns…

Dear names,

And thousand other throng to me! Royal flames;

Sweet water’s dimpling laugh from tap or spring;

Holes in the ground; and voices that do sing;

Voices in laughter, too; and body’s pain,

Soon turned to peace; and the deep-panting train,

Firm sands; the little dulling edge of foam

That browns and dwindles as the wave goes home…

All these have been my loves…