READINGS OF THE WORK BY PHILIP HARVEY

I have measured out my life in coffee spoons As others measure theirs in honeymoons. For some hairdryers, singing in choirs, Others are terminally frequent flyers. Life’s the credit column for bean counters The book shut hard when figures falter. Waiting for a word is a lover’s calendar; Time overflows, when not a colander. Each to their own, goes the stopwatch platitude, Winding the timepiece, setting the alarm, Pretending to adopt a zen attitude. Seconds may stretch to an eternity. Sonnets give an impression of calm charm Then press tender buttons of insanity.

Burnt Norton Some other thoughts on T.S. Eliot, before, during and after our presentation to the Institute for Spiritual Studies at St. Peter’s Church, Eastern Hill, Melbourne on Tuesday the 21 st of April. * Eliot became a believer and practitioner of ritual, both in poetry and life. The silence of his last twenty years, when he wrote no more big poems, reminds me of a life lived out symbolically. His life reads like the parts of a service like the Mass. There is the turmoil and crises of his early life, the resolutions and restorations that come after the poem Ash-Wednesday, and then the silence and peace following Little Gidding. There is no point labouring this idea too much, but clearly Eliot found no need to say anything more once his life of faith was understood and accepted. “Shantih. Shantih. Shantih.” * “Not very satisfactory” in East Coker echoes in our minds with The Journey of the Magi. This evocative description of travel to the birthplace of Chr...

St. John's Church, Little Gidding, Cambridgeshire, England On Thursday the 21 st of April Will Johnston, Robert Gribben and I gave a presentation on T.S. Eliot to the Institute for Spiritual Studies at St. Peter’s Church, Eastern Hill, Melbourne. Here is the first part of my contribution to the evening. Thursday the 21 st of April 2016 starts early. Intermittent rain predicted. Because I do not hope to turn again Because I do not hope Because I do not hope to turn I wake up from my sleep. Lorikeets chatter in trees of the Heidelberg District. Today I am committed to giving a presentation in town. It’s going to be about Thomas Stearns Eliot. Stearns always seemed like a warning of what was to come and we all know that Thomas is the one who doubts. Eliot, a moderately common name, however we spell it. I knew someone who had a cat called Eliot. Of names of this kind, I can give you a quorum,           Su...

The Dry Salvages, off Rockport, Massachusetts On Thursday the 21 st of April Will Johnston, Robert Gribben and I gave a presentation on T.S. Eliot to the Institute for Spiritual Studies at St. Peter’s Church, Eastern Hill, Melbourne. Here is the second part of my contribution to that evening, which opened with me reading aloud East Coker II. Poetry is an art of big and small effects. The big effect of The Wasteland is to experience the dissolution of the subjective self into fragments. The big effect of Four Quartets may be our remembrance of how one person uses meaningful places in his own life as ground for meditations on time, memory, humanness and God. Even though these are lasting recollections of the poems, when we wish to draw meaning we go to verses, lines, or even single words, the small effects. It is a few of these small effects in Eliot we turn to now. “That was a way of putting it – not very satisfactory.” Well why does he bother? What kind of p...

The different voices he has writing to his different correspondents come over remarkably like the different voices of The Wasteland. It is almost uncanny. The popular nonsense sections sound like large parts of his correspondence to Conrad Aiken, which really makes one wonder about his motives there in contrast to the interpretations of the critics. The high-minded philosophic letters (their implications) with Bertrand Russell are the very positions he later laments and suffers for. Throughout it all the increasingly paranoid correspondence of Vivien runs through the playfulness &c. like a sinister jinx. All of Eliot’s early letters display a deeply felt response to others, a perfectly formed sense of expression, but vivacity, charm, wisdom ready to be tested. The stunning moment after his father’s death where he mourns for all that his father wished to do with his own life and never achieved; hoping that he can be everything his father would be proud of, then asking for hi...

Disclosure, by Ann Lewin   Philip Harvey   Written by request for the students at St Peter’s Eastern Hill Melbourne studying for their Trinity College Certificate in Theology & Ministry, February-April 2011, under the direction of Bishop Graeme Rutherford.   Disclosure Ann Lewin Prayer is like watching for the Kingfisher. All you can do is Be where he is likely to appear, and Wait. Often, nothing much happens; There is space, silence and Expectancy. No visible sign, only the Knowledge that he’s been there And may come again. Seeing or not seeing cease to matter, You have been prepared. But sometimes when you’ve almost stopped Expecting it, a flash of brightness Gives encouragement. Ann Lewin is drawing on an established tradition in modern poetry of using the kingfisher as a sign of anticipation, breakthrough, recognition, wonder, and revelation. Her understanding of prayer comes from the contemplative and mystical tra...