This selection of poems by a new author was triggered by the tragic death of his 28-year-old daughter. So the collection begins with loss and the aftermath of loss: the hope of the author that his daughter and he may be reunited in the life to come. This hope underlies many of the poems. This is clearly articulated in ‘Osler and Son’, where a father grieves for loss of his son in World War I but in a stoical, unexpressed manner.The author records his childhood experience of emotions being held back in ‘Boys Don’t Cry John’. While some poems look back, most are contemporary, such as those inspired by the lockdown and the Ukraine War.The author advocates expression of feelings. This is powerfully expressed in relation to his experience of Friendship, both past and present. Transcendental beauty is a theme in the metaphysical poems ‘The Colour Blue’ and ‘Roman Glass’.However, each poem is unique. Many of them speak from the heart and have an emotional impact. The author hopes that these will resonate with readers.
John Walker-Smith is an Australian with dual British citizenship. He is a medical graduate of the University of Sydney and is now Emeritus Professor of Paediatric Gastroenterology University of London. He has lived in London since 1973.
His wife died from Alzheimer’s disease in 2019. He has two living children and eight grandchildren. His second daughter tragically died aged 29 years in 2004. This was followed by the death of his nephew aged 33 years. These events led him to write poetry for the first time.
He has an MA in Christianity and the Arts at King’s College London. He is a member of The King’s Chapel of the Savoy. He is Life President of the Crohn’s in Childhood Research Appeal and the Founder President of CAPGAN.
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John Walker Smith, medical author and medical historian presents his second anthology of poetry entitled Hope, Beauty and Friendship. His works, mostly autobiographical, include a wide series of events and personal experiences relating to family, medicine and his concerns with contemporary society.
Reflecting on his own thoughts and beliefs, Walker Smith’s poems encompass many of the positive and negative aspects of human nature. He takes his readers on an emotional journey through his life, past and present, describing both melancholic and joyous occasions as well as shifts in political ideologies and the terrors of war.
In his poem Time and Memory the poet is overwhelmed by the beauty and power of art remembering the reality of the images in Carlo Crevelli’s paintings “images fail but memories sustain us.” He connects with Crevelli’s hypereal images, full of hidden surprises, as in life. His words unveil how the artist cuts across time and space, creating figures that are both human and divine. Through his verse he shows how Crevelli’s Madonna and child, images of St. Sebastian and other saints promote human devotion and belong to the present and the past. The artist’s work juxtapose both good and evil alongside the rewards of faith filling us with hope and calming our fears.
Walker-Smith presents a poignant and emotional reflection on his incredulity at man’s humanity. He does this ostensibly from the medical practitioner’s position, in two of his powerful works particularly, A doctor reflects After visiting Auschwitz and Good Friday at a time of Corona. In the former he asks a succession of profound questions in seeking to comprehend the total absence of any medical ethics in Mengele’s manifest atrocities. Powerless to provide explanation, Walker concludes with a religious petition: “Why could such things be”. In contrast, in Good Friday at a time of Corona, Walker-Smith draws thought- provoking parallels between the self-sacrifice of medics “doctors, nurses, and others too”, and Christ’s sacrifice, his “limitless love” at his crucifixion.
In John Walker Smiths poetry the reader is drawn into the narrative through his conversational device which permeates between prose. He aims to speak to the reader and offers avenues for reflection, providing comfort and counsel.
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The Revd Canon Thomas Woodhouse, Chaplain
In John’s Collection of poems, Hope, Beauty and friendship, you will experience the whole of human life and more! It is a corpus of work that spans a lifetime, a life of celebration and commiseration, a life of memorial and thanksgiving, a life of enquiry and study. John is set at the heart of his large family, a family that literally reaches around the whole globe, a family that has endured its own fair share of sorrow and joy. John’s poems reflect all of this, in their national and international feel, in John’s willingness to go to rather than shy away from tragedy, and through religion and medicine. John’s deep and enduring Christian faith is the bedrock on which his life is built, and his poetry bears witness to his faith, as well as to an extraordinary breadth and interests. Hope, Beauty and Friendship could easily be translated as “Faith, Hope and love and greatest of these is love.”-it witnesses to all three!
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It is not often that you are privileged enough to enter into someone else’s mind. This unique collection of work reminds one of sitting in an attic, long unvisited, on a Spring morning with the light pouring in from a low sun through the window and discovering everywhere previously untouched gems.
Every poem is like a box that, when opened, envelopes you and takes you on a journey-sometimes to a past seen through the prism of the day, often a travel through a poignant land where sadness and hope walk together and most impressively, opening into a life full of exploration, both geographical and emotional.
The wide range of topics is extra-ordinary, but they have a collective power which speaks to the human condition-precipitated as this was by tragedy-but the joy wins, with the sadness having its counterpoint, for how can one exist without the other?
John Walker-Smith has taken us, with beautiful verse and certainty of style, through his ‘attic’ and one gets the sense that there are many more secrets to be discovered, both through re-reading these marvellous poems and also of secrets to come. The modern events that formulate some of the more recent works reveal an ongoing relevance of approach through the lens of a long life, enriched by many experiences and filtered through its owner’s inevitable wisdom.
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This book consists of 66 short and easy-to-read poems on diverse subjects. Though initially written as a response to the sad death of his daughter, the poems reflect a variety of experiences in the author’s life. These include events in his long career as a paediatric gastroenterologist, working with children in an impoverished area of East London. Medical issues such as the Coronavirus pandemic are also considered as well as changes to hospital staffing and practice in recent years. There is a strong Christian theme in many poems, together with an expression of hope for a future time when we may meet our loved ones again. Among other subjects mentioned in the book are family, friendship & love, travel and war. Two poems are about transcendental beauty, ‘Roman Glass’ and ‘The Colour Blue.’ As mentioned by the author, readers are likely to respond differently to individual poems according to their own beliefs and life experiences. This is part of the interest of this unusual collection.
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Ian Sanderson from London
ECHOES OF HOPE AND LOSS: A POETIC JOURNEY THROUGH GRIEF AND FAITH
While grief could be described as the most poignant emotion a human being can suffer, it has begotten great literature. Each of us can recollect instances that have stayed with us; one cannot fail to be moved by Michel de Montaigne’s essay On Friendship, or by W.H. Auden’s Funeral Blues. Grief was the seed for John Walker-Smith’s dazzling set of poems, entitled Hope, Beauty and Friendship. However, the collection is up-lifting rather than melancholy. Much of this is due to the poet’s style, which is free verse with a positive underlying rhythm. The author’s strong Christian faith also contributes to the optimistic tone. Some of the poems concentrate on religious themes. The physical connection (poem 32) priests have with Jesus Christ, from the sequence of laying on of bishop’s hands over two thousand years, is beautifully brought to light. It makes one realise that all confirmed Christians have this blessing. Poet and reader “are clean different things”; it is likely that the poems that resonate most with the reader may differ from those that are closest to the author. John Walker-Smith’s tribute to his cousin (poem 16) who died in the Royal Australian Air Force during World War II is one that readers may particularly be drawn to. The pilot sacrificed his life in the cause of our freedom. While we do not feel the emotional pull of the poet, the work is part of our story and our loss also. The whole section on Terror and War, may similarly engage us. The book is dedicated to Laura, the author’s second daughter, who died tragically young; and many moving poems describe emotions between family members. Two of the poems (47 and 48) are so personal that the poet doesn’t reveal to whom they refer; but this anonymity brings with it a universal experience. Many of us have loved individuals whose identity we have not been able to widely divulge. The collection touches on many themes, which are listed in the contents. It is not the purpose of this short review to examine all of them. But the variety of experience that the poet considers and writes about, is one of the strengths of the book. I commend this collection, not only because of the topics that it covers but also because of the beauty and readability of the language that describes them.
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Gordon Stokes Mona Vale from New South Wales Australia
It is a beautiful set of reflections expressed in clear, elegant verse. A throb of nostalgia beats quietly through many of the sixty-six poems. They richly convey the lingering sadness, joy and camaraderie engendered by personal experiences with which many folks will find an affinity. They may also identify the vein of love for God and certain hope of eternal life flowing through the verse.
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This is a very heartfelt collection of poems, written following the tragic death of the author’s daughter. The poems range from the intensely personal to the political, underpinned by a deep Christian faith. The overall tone is of emotional honesty, and the author displays an uncynical loyalty to his adopted country and its monarchy. A very moving collection of poems written in an approachable and unshowy free verse style.
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Wonderful emotive poetry
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