In Association

 

I will forever associate Thom Gunn's excellent extended poem sequence Misanthropos with the equally excellent Lake Tekapo - though, as you may have guessed, they are excellent for very different reasons. I'm guessing that Misanthropos concerns the thoughts and experiences of the survivor of some cataclysmic war, probably nuclear. All very 60s, which is when it was written. And, let's face it, deeply clichéd. Yet Gunn's poem is never less than fascinating, and technically virtuosic, though not believable in the story-telling sense. But no one ever believes poetry, so it works in ways that a novel or play featuring the same material wouldn't. In contrast, the lake, if it's about anything, is about peace - or at least it was today.

In case you're wondering about the link between the lake and the poem, I read much of Gunn's assured and often biting verse whilst keeping guard of the bags and devices of my companions as they kayaked upon the lake. A most fulfilling way of occupying guard duty.