More than Meets the Eye

In this collection of poetry, you may find words to delight, intrigue or evoke awareness of things half-forgotten.

More Than Meets the Eye points to the idea that the personal experiences of life are not meaningless and chaotic, and that there really is more to life than appears on the surface. The poems in this collection combine the expression of honest and deeply felt personal experiences and observations with a gently insistent recognition of the all-encompassing yet intimate realities which lie behind life. They seek to share the joys of life, the longings we feel and the need we have to be known and recognised – to be part of things.

‘I was originally inspired to write poetry by a small number of hymns in which faith and deep personal feelings combine to reach out to the reader,’ observes A S Macdonald. ‘Poetry allows the poet to feel part of things by sharing his own life while, at the same time, touching others.’

In bucking the trends of excessive cynicism, subjectivism or mysticism these poems seek out straightforward yet deep human feelings and a desire for real life. In sharing experiences and observations in an entertaining and sometimes humorous way, they hint at a route whose signposts have become rather obscured in today’s world. They provide an antidote to the poisonous effect on our lives of much modern positivism (with its underlying emptiness), a sense of the connection between the ordinary and the spiritual, and a sense of escape from the feeling of being trapped in a culture which does not recognise the individual.

‘Readers uneasy about the direction our society is taking or uneasy about recent developments in religion might find, within the poems, a quiet place of empathy, comfort and quite a few talking-points,’ adds Macdonald.