Richard Burns' AVEBURY
 

Hi all

On ebay currently, a Serbian seller is selling a first edition copy of a poetry book titled Avebury by British poet Richard Burns, published in 1972 by Anvil Press, and signed to the late Serbian poet Ivan V. Lalić (1931–1996) for $46.99. I was curious about the book and about Burns. He's new to me but probably is not new to British-based poets. I have discovered that the poet's real name is Richard Berengarten and he has had an accomplished career. I found a free pdf copy of Avebury available for download on line so I guess I will not be sending my money to Serbia! The book-long poem, about the prehistoric megalithic monument near Stonehenge and not as touristy... worth seeing if you are in the UK -- the large stone circle encircles the village of Avebury -- makes for a provocative read.

Chris

Burns has written some exceptional poetry. I enjoyed Avebury as well. Salt Publishing has reissued a lot of his work in a couple of volumes, well worth checking out -- Avebury is in one of them.

Berengarten is his family name, he reassumed recently.

Thanks, Andrew!

Chris

You can find a facsimile edition of the whole poem at a site called shearsman.com, and though I don't usually fancy poems of this kind (no punctuation, just phrases scattered about the page) , the style did seem appropriate to the subject.
Avebury is a place I always wanted to see and finally did, this past July.
The best part was the sheep (I love English sheep) wandering around and snuggling up to the Neolithic rocks.

Hi Gail

It's taken a long time to answer your post. I've been to Avebury twice, once when I was a teenager along with my grandparents and parents, when we had tea and scones in a local teashop near the Neolithic circle, and more recently with my wife Donna. In a lot of ways I find Avebury more natural and authentic than Stonehenge. Although Stonehenge gets all the attention, it's a notorious tourist trap and has lost its magic for that reason. Avebury still has that mystique because it is not touristy, and you can walk among the stones alone, contemplating the enigma of the stone circle.

Best regards

Chris

Chris, this is fascinating, and I will definitely look into it. Thanks for posting,

When I was growing up in England--I left in my late 20s--I was obsessed with ancient Britain (and Roman Britain) and I once hiked for three days along The Ridgeway, an ancient trail, starting out at Avebury. It's all beautiful, the stones, the town, and the surrounding countryside. And the trail has a lot of ancient barrows (burial mounds) lined up along it. I stayed at pubs and in farmhouses, drinking cider every night... Never mind!

But I always wanted to write about it too. Glad you got to see it, Gail.

Charlotte

Hi Charlotte

Your hike along the Ridgeway sounds fascinating -- a journey of a lifetime. Thanks for sharing your memories with us. As you probably know, I am from Liverpool, an area that has few prehistoric remains. But we do have the Calder Stones, prehistoric carved sandstone boulders with whorls and other designs from a chambered tomb similar to those found at Barclodiad y Gawres in Anglesey or Newgrange in Ireland.

All the best

Chris

Chris, you might be interested to know that Andrew, who was the first to intervene on the thread, has written an excellent essay on Burns/Berengarten. It was published in an Italian magazine, Semicerchio.

Thanks for pointing me in the direction of Andrew's essay on Burns/Berengarten, Greg.

Chris

Chris, thanks for telling me about those other stones. I certainly didn't know about the Calder stones. Fascinating! And yes, that Ridgeway walk was pretty amazing. Another walk I did once was along Offa's Dyke, a massive earthwork along the border of England and Wales, which goes back to the 8th century--176 miles! Years ago, I did a big chunk of it over two weeks.

Charlotte