Report on a recent book launch by Emeritus Prof Geoffrey Haresnape
The Dance of Life by Bob Commin was launched at a well-attended function in the St Stephen’s Church Hall. Pinelands, on Saturday afternoon, 14th June. The book comes in five sections and contains 42 titles- so there is a lot of verse to meditate upon and enjoy. Perhaps the most important clue to Bob’s work is that he is both Anglican priest and poet. In fact in his case both priest and poet intertwine.
When we have The Dance of Life in our hands, and go through it page by page, we discover poems which draw upon childhood experience, poems of nature, poems which celebrate family and friends, poems in honour of of fellow clerics, and poems charting the ups and downs of his favourite game, hockey.
In his introduction Bob writes: ‘I have always had an ear for the sound of words, their rhythm and drama.’ We certainly find this to be true in the poems contained in this book. Unlike much cerebral poetry which is bound to the page on which it is written, Bob’s poems ask to be read aloud, even to be performed by a variety of voices. It has been often recorded how childhood can be a formative time for a poet; e.g. William Wordsworth’s ‘the child is father of the man.’ Arguably some of the most successful poems in Bob’s collection spring from his Woodstock childhood when he experienced, in the words of a key poem, ‘Sommer a Cupful of Life,’
Hockey Poems show the poet exchanging his Woodstock bat and ball for a sophisticated hockey stick with white ball to match. These poems give expression to the darkly comic, and even macabre, qualities of striving to remain active in spite of age-induced handicaps. However, the dominant mood of the book lies in the realm of blessings and ritualistic formulations which spring from Bob’s vocation. An appropriate quotation from poet Rainer Maria Rilke sets the tone at the head of the text.. ‘Oh, tell me poet what do you do? I praise.’
Meditation on the Sea
For couples I have married
The Sea is one of the passions that draws you together
The Sea is the land’s edge and the Sea’s edge
the interweaving line, where the two become one
the place where you walk together
weaving in and out of the soul you share together
you must walk to keep the flame of love alive
The sea is a place of adventure.
It is the watersports-man’s playing field.
The place of energy, invigoration and joy
It is invites your playfulness.
The Sea is the place of mystery, of moods,
of storms, of change, of currents, of strange underwater life,
there is a deep unconscious world that demands your respect,
that calls for your nurturing.
The sea is a place of shifting horizons, of arriving,
adapting, moving on, of dreams, visions and goals –
it beacons to you and mirrors your life
The sea is a place of rhythm and ritual,
of tides coming in, coming in, going out.
of sea touching land, smoothing, massaging, healing.
It invites your healing through the hands of each other.
Love and the island of caves
Love and masks in an urban area
in the time of covid-19 lockdown
We have come to this place
where we are real to each other only
Facing each other in Plato’s cave
Everyone else a masked shadow
passing. In the lilies above our bed
the flowers fade and there are only the spaces,
macabre faces in a slow dance of fear.
Most real to us are the shafts
of sunlight in the bougainvillea
mixing crimson with potato-bush blue
the chirruping choir of sparrows
and the chew-chit of the collared sunbird,
as lost as we in their new freedom.
Voices of neighbours unrhythm our morning
Laughter across the yards invade us
dislocated nouns and verbs fall about us,
diffusing. Memory and pain pour from us
as we eucharist at home.
Strangely we discover a life we once knew
The machine hums and fabric and cottons colour a table
Pens and pastels wash through paper
Meals are conjured and senses savoured
And we play.
In the streets we haste past strangers
in the dawn glow
Momentary recognitions
At dusk images of our children and theirs
arise and fade into untouching loneliness
Another day
Our friends die and eddy into the silent clouds
Touching and tasting puts the world under siege
Now it is only you my love
For this we had chosen each other
In that distant time of freshness and promise
For only our love serves and saves
In this island of caves.
Bob Commin 2020
Ivan the Terrible
The fearsome defender
He is Ivan
the terrible
the iron curtain
of the uncertain
who aims his stick
and runs you down
a missile on attack
He is Ivan the terrible
he’s animal not vegetable
he grumbles here
he gnaws you there
and flicks you with his hip
and when you fall
he stands so tall
his smile is all polite
but that is you for the night.
He is Ivan
the terrible
he eats your stick
and gulps your ball
he seeks you here,
he seeks you there
his manners are invisible.
He is Ivan the terrible
when whistle blows
he snuffs his nose
and stiffens from his toes
but when the ump gives him the query,
he’s all bonhomie and merry
now glasnost is his claim
until the next encounter
when the missile like a spear
flashes past your ear
and before you can retreat
you are the victim at his feet.
He is Ivan the terrible
He’s animal not vegetable.
So pass the ball to the player
On your right.
2017
People could get the book at the office of St Stephen’s church, Pinelands 074 103 8999, or order it directly from me, Whatsapp 082 202 5303 or from The Paper Moon Bookshops in Woodstock or Muizenberg 0824440444. Price: R150 .
bobcommin.com 
Congrats , Bob! Exciting!
Love P & P xx
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Such a well deserved and on the dot report of all the layers of the poetry in your book Bob x sue g
Sue Gow 504 New Rosedale SA Legion Lower Nursery Road Rosebank 7700 cell: 0834675995
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Thank you Bob for blessing this creative and beautiful collection of poems! I love the words that create images in my
heart and mind as I read the poetry in the different sections. I celebrate with you Bob and thank you for sharing these.
Kind regards, Sue
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