PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
A decade long stretch of illness largely confined Phil Barnett to a living room. His patch was the view through the window. He had swapped the people, job, relationships and fully working body of his previous life, for a garden full of birds. It was made bearable by his fascination with all things avian. It would be only a slight exaggeration to say that he spent 10 years looking out of a window. He recorded and documented everything, producing a website. Although still affected by illness Phils daily walks take him around an area of fairly ordinary countryside in South Lancashire, producing both poetry and photography that is anything but ordinary.
These poems are windows onto moments of a life steeped in nature. At once perceptive and full of wonder, they captivate with a uniqueness and vibrancy, just as the sudden surprise of birds can startle us from our myopic existence. Jane Lovell
