LIBRARY JOTTINGS

Very recently received in the Library is Issue three of the Friends Quarterly. As the editor Tony Stoller writes in the frontispiece, it is an unusual issue, indeed an unprecedented one. It is devoted entirely to aspects of poetry as it touches upon the concerns of Quakers. It will be a hard, intellectually stimulating read and will produce much material for thought and discussion.

Friends who were present at the afternoon in February about the work of U A Fanthorpe will be interested in the article by Sibyl Ruth entitled Wildness and witness: seven responses to a poem by U A Fanthorpe, the poem in question being Friends’ Meeting House, Frenchay Bristol.

Poetry through Quaker eyes by Simon Webb covers the works of Thomas Ellwood, John Greenleaf Whittier and surprisingly Walt Whitman who had a Quaker mother.

Stevie Krayer describes the process of compiling a Quaker anthology which she and Rosie Bailey have just completed and which will be published in the autumn. Rosie Bailey herself is represented by her poem Brother Ass which appears at the end piece.

Tony Stoller in his frontispiece admits that poetry is not always easy to read and that prose about poetry can illuminate it but can be challenging. He tells us to plunge in!