Ditch Vision

<p><em>Ditch Vision</em> is a book of essays on poetry nature and place that extends Jeremy Hooker’s thinking on subjects that as a distinguished critic and poet he has made his life’s work. The writers he considers include Edward Thomas Robert Frost Robinson Jeffers Richard Jefferies John Cowper Powys Mary Butts and Frances Bellerby. Through sensitive readings of these and other writers he discusses differences between British and American writers concerned with nature and spirit of place. The book also includes essays in which he reflects upon the making of his own work as a lyric poet. Written throughout with a poet’s feeling for language <em>Ditch Vision </em>is the work of an exploratory writer who seeks to understand the writings he discusses in depth and to illuminate them for other readers. Hooker explores the ‘ground’ of poetic vision with reference to its historical and mythological contexts and in this connection <em>Ditch Vision </em>constitutes also a spiritual quest.</p>