For something over 26 years, I was a partner in a software startup business. For a long time, it was great fun. For the final few years, however, it became stressful and unsatisfying. Fortunately, my partner and I managed to retire in good circumstances.
This multi-part piece is subtitled "A Retirement Poem". Its concern is the quest for a sense of freedom and restored peace of mind which I wanted to achieve by returuing from my business life and devoting much of my time to the various creative projects I had put on hold while absorbed in the business.
Some explanatory notes might help with a reading of this piece. It's divided into 4 main parts, with seasonal interludes evoking the progression from winter through spring to summer.
The first part contains reflections on the negative aspects of my past working life, and commemorates some of the unappetising characters I encountered during those years (and, in fact even before I started work).
The second part is inspired by the extensive country walking around London and further afuield which I've done since escaping from the years of hard labour, as well as the beginnings of a pilgrimage on foot to Compostela, which comprised a walk from London to the south coast.
Part three concerns my practice of meditation - something which has sustained me over many years, and which has become if anything more important to me since retiring - and lists my various reasons for maintaining this practice.
Part four is a shorter poem dedicated to my partner of more than forty years - it was the most difficult part to write due to the emotional intensity involved; however, it's here now.
Three of the four parts presented here conclude with a travel fragment, again referencing the Compostela pilgrimage, as well as memories from other travels around Europe - some of the places inspiring these fraghments are listed on the title page.
Read Citizen of the Evening
You can read or download the four-part work with interludes (PDF, 199kb) by clicking on the flink below:
