The heart of peace, and other poems

This collection brings together poems of peace, conflict, nature, faith, love, and memory. Its opening pieces move from a playful rural vision of simpler living to a richly atmospheric meditation on the pull of western hills, old rivalries, and inherited identity. Across the poems, landscapes become emotional territory: woodland, farmland, mountains, gardens, and coastlines echo the speaker’s longing, unease, tenderness, and wonder.

The wartime poems confront sacrifice, violence, spiritual struggle, and the hope of renewal, while other sections turn toward saints, lovers, children, legends, and the quiet mysteries of ordinary life. The collection’s range is considerable, encompassing lyrical reflections, dramatic narratives, ballads, songs, and poems shaped by religious imagery. Listeners will find both solemnity and wit here, with intimate personal feeling set beside broader questions about humanity, conscience, and the possibility of peace.