The Park by John Freeman: book review

The Park (2020) is a collection of poetry.

The park of the title is the Jardin du Luxembourg – the Luxembourg Garden in Paris. The collection is all about the park in all of the four seasons of the year. Moreover, it is not only about the structure of the park, but it is also about people and their relationship with nature, and the culture of the park and its people.

He explores both the largeness of the park and the solitary walker or user of the park. He explores the design and its structured flower beds and lawns, not for touching or sitting on, and the scatterings of hundreds of iconic green chairs. He explores the vast openness and expanses lined with trees. He explores people’s reactions with each other in the park and in Paris in general. He writes of the locked gates in the evening.

Its themes go beyond nature and beauty – with poems entitled ‘Birds’ ‘Spring’ ‘The Pool’ and ‘Crow’ – to questions and thoughts about Parisian life – ‘Ordering a Café in Paris’ and ‘Why Paris is Not the West’ and ‘Charity’ and ‘Paris at Night.’

This poetry collection is both peaceful and thought-provoking.

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MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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