Stephen Robins14 Oct 2004

A splendid juxtaposition. Answering as many questions as it poses, closing as many doors at it opens. A maginicent edifice upon which to build the real foundations of a splendid career in observational poetry. Not many people take on the whole God versus Darwin theme and fewer still succeed in such a candid and abstract formulation to illustrate the stark, and when highlighted, glaring similar differences. The whole poem revolves around the forest/record counter-analogy which is such a subtle play on the words as to probably escape the grasp of most rankers.

Although a pithy crumb to offer up to an altar of omni-knowledge, I would like to highlight that there is a word which transcends the two halves of this poem. And that I am afraid is the brogue. Neither the creation, alone, of a deity nor the result of man's need to clad his feet, the brogue typifies the grey areas left untrammelled by your fine words. The brogue is an example of the expedience of evolution confronting the glory of ornate religion combining to suffuse the surface of an otherwise ugly, plain shoe with the beauty of a greater more magnificent entity.

In summary I believe this poem would be better had you alluded to the brogues role in whole creation debate. I believe Darwin himself was a man clad from ankle to toe in the finest brogues from the whole of Northampton.