Annemarie Papanikitas is a retired educator in Oxford
John Walker Smith, emeritus gastroenterology professor, historian and poet, 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 the author’s own thoughts and beliefs, the poems encompass many of the positive and negative aspects of human nature. Walker Smith 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.
Reflecting on his own thoughts and beliefs, Walker Smith’s poems encompass many of the positive and negative aspects of human nature.
In his poem Time and Memory the poet is overwhelmed by the beauty and power of art, while 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 juxtaposes both good and evil alongside the rewards of faith in the poet’s eye, 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 Smith’s poetry the reader is drawn into the narrative through his conversational approach which permeates the prose.He aims to speak to the reader and offers avenues for reflection, providing comfort and counsel.
Featured book: John Walker Smith, Poems of hope, beauty, and friendship, Austin Macauley Publishers (13 Oct. 2023), Hardcover,102 pages, ISBN 978-1035833894 £11.99
Featured Photo by Scott Van Hoy on Unsplash
