POETRY SPOTLIGHT: 'He Painted Mountains' by Shaun Berg

This week's feature poem is by Shaun Berg from his collection Wystan’s Relic, a book that will challenge your thinking and provide new perspectives on important questions.

Post written by Poppy Nwosu

This week I decided to take a look at Wystan's Relic by poet Shaun Berg, and found the below poem, called 'He Painted Mountains' which really slowed me down and made me think.
My favourite line is as follows:

I believe that lakes were built,
for swans to float on
 

From 'He Painted Mountains' by Shaun Berg.

I don't know why that particular line stands out to me so much, but it really does. The whole poem is rather sad, in a thoughtful way, and I interpret it to be a reflection of a life not spent positively, and a musing on regret.

He Painted Mountains

Wystan's Relic

considers with lyrical tenderness the dilemma of existence. It raises questions about our fragile bodies and their presence in the world through our lives lived. It asks what exists beyond the decay of the body and mind. Is there nothing or is there everything? Is this really the right question? Maybe our lack of permanence as beings means that we can never really exist. Then again, maybe we can exist beyond those living forms but then we fail for lack of context. What are we if we have no form; maybe only the tools of a conspiracy by the more enduring forms. Why do we need form anyway, what is existence without it? Does life end upon your death, does it continue notwithstanding death, what is it to live anyway, how can you ever really know?
This book will challenge your thinking and provide you with new perspectives on these important questions.

About the author:

Shaun Berg was born in Adelaide, Australia in 1967. His undergraduate studies were at the University of Adelaide. He has travelled widely throughout his life.
He lives in South Australia.

Discover more about Shaun Berg's Wystan’s Relic here on our website.
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