A Glimpse of Eternal Snows by Jane Wilson-Howarth

One wonders if this work is a vanity project, given the blatant display of the names of organisations such as 'Singapore Interfaith', 'Inter-religious Organisation' and 'Harmony Centre'.A Glimpse of Eternal Snows opens in a teaching hospital in Cambridge where our second son, David, is in trouble. My unsolicited advice, to the reader who is deciding whether to read the anthology or not, is to read the works of Thoreau himself instead, or Wilson-Howarth's book.

In a sentence, it becomes tedious to read the works in this anthology once the novelty (of the seemingly Herculean effort to laud nature that one finds in 'concrete jungles') wears off.Ī sore disappointment, given the references to Thoreau. This sense of captivation is sorely missing in the anthology under review. Clearly Wilson-Howarth is in love with the abundant flora and fauna she found in Nepal, and it shows in her writing. I experienced no catharsis in reading the few poems I came across in this anthology.įrequently I found myself wishing the writers featured herein had kept to the admonishment of 'show, not tell' - an admonishment that any aspiring poet could have easily gotten nowadays - for I found the descriptions of scenery banal.įor an ode to the joys, spendour and mystery of nature, a reader might be better served by reading a book by Jane Wilson-Howarth, 'A Glimpse of Eternal Snows: A Family's Journey of Love and Loss in Nepal'.

The few poems that I have read are a far cry from the contemplation and inner, subtle, search that Thoreau has obviously made in his time, despite the clear desperation of the folks behind this book to lift their effort to the heights of Thoreau's works. Naturally, the anthology suffers from this decision. The irony is that the editors seem keen to have an association with Thoreau's works, if not Thoreau himself, who has been described as one of America's early Buddhists, and yet they omit any foray in 'straightforward' religion. Ironically, the editors write on page-number-eleven of the book that 'naturally we were careful to avoid promoting 'religious poetry' in any straightforward sense, or any banal, proselytising verse'.

How ambitious a title to reference Thoreau's 'Walden'.

A Glimpse of Eternal Snows by Jane Wilson-Howarth