‘Enormity’ means, for present purposes, the huge size or scale of something that is likely to overwhelm. Be assured, dear reader, that the contents of this volume are not intended, nor likely, to cause your heart to leap out of your mouth or even anything much less traumatic.

The manifestations of enormity considered in ‘ENORMITY’ include:

- the unexpected emergence of a ‘worm’ from behind the narrator’s eye [‘that stranger eye’];

- the inevitability of a Jew’s debasement and execution by the Nazi death machine [‘turn’];

- the discovery of a past cataclysmic event with adverse implications for the present and the future [‘into the trees [ENORMITY]’];

- a bomber pilot’s realisation that his life is at needless and imminent risk fighting in another’s country’s war [‘flight’];

- ramifications of a death by suicide [‘the dying of memory’]; &

- the trauma of death [for ears that, when eyes won’t’].

Themes other than enormity are also considered in ‘ENORMITY’ including:

- narcissism [‘Chameleon’; ‘Entity: case studies’; ‘ice world’];

- separation (adult male & female) [‘a half life; ‘spinning top, can’t stop’];

- Christian religion [‘Assembly of the Friends of God’; ‘my latest supper’];

- personal philosophy [‘the fathomed shore’; ‘prospect’];

- forces of nature [‘sprung’; ‘planted’];

- mental illness [‘fire no more’; ‘voluntary admission’; ‘E Ward’]; &

- ageing [‘ring the rosies’].

‘ENORMITY’ is a collection of poems by Western Australian poet Peter Knight that seek to address aspects of human existence, with some emphasis on the impact of significant event, death, nature and natural forces. These poems are amply diverse such that they may be of broad interest, relevance and appeal to many readers. The poet’s underlying intention is not so much to explain but to explore. To facilitate the reader exploring in whatever way her/his mind or emotions may be prompted to go.

‘ENORMITY’ is the second volume, by chronology of composition, in a 4 volume collection by Peter Knight entitled ‘Ruminator’. The first volume, ‘Strange surroundS’ was published as an eBook in February 2017. It is intended that the third volume, ‘placental’, will be published as an eBook in the first half of 2017. The fourth volume, ‘Vigilant Watchers’, was published as an eBook in December 2016.

Peter Knight

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