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About

Jan Hedger first started writing poetry nine years ago in her hometown of Birmingham; returning there after many years living away in Berkshire, Sussex and the North East of Scotland. Leaving Birmingham for Wiltshire, her poetry continued to flourish and develop whilst working at Swindon College, where she received a great deal of inspiration and encouragement. It was in this period where she gained an A* English GCSE at the mature age of 46! Jan’s love of life and her interest in a wide range of subjects is reflected in her poetry. She has had sixteen poems previously published in anthologies and regularly performs her work. Jan believes poetry should be accessible to everyone. Her first book 'Words in Imagination' was published in 2008.

Jan now lives in Bexhill on Sea, East Sussex, with her husband Nigel.

Description

“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.”(Teilhard de Chardin)Involution-An Odyssey Reconciling Science to God is as layered as a French cassoulet, as diverting, satisfying and as rich. Each reader will spoon this book differently. On the surface it seems to be a simple and light-hearted poetic journey through the history of Western thought, dominantly scientific, but enriched with painting and music. Beneath that surface is the sauce of a new evolutionary idea, involution; the informing of all matter by consciousness, encoded and communicating throughout the natural world. A book about the cathedral of consciousness could have used any language to paint it, but science is perhaps most in need of new vision, and its chronology is already familiar.The author offers a bold alternative vision of both science and creation: she suggests that science has been incrementally the recovery of memory, the memory of evolution/involution.“ Involution proposes that humans carry within them the history of the universe, which is (re)discovered by the individual genius when the time is ripe. All is stored within our DNA and awaits revelation. Such piecemeal revelations set our finite lives in an eternal chain of co-creation and these new leaps of discovery are compared to mystical experience” (From a reviewer)Each unique contributor served the collective and universal return to holism and unity. Thus the geniuses of the scientific journey, like the spiritual visionaries alongside, have threaded the rosary of science with the beads of inspiration, and through them returned Man to his spiritual nature and origin.The separation between experience and the rational intellect of science has, by modelling memory as theory, separated its understanding from the consciousness of all, and perceives mind and matter as separate, God and Man as distinct. This work is a dance towards their re-unification: Saints and scientists break the same bread.All of time and all the disciplines of science are needed for the evidence. Through swift (and sometimes sparring) Cantos of dialogue between Reason and Soul, Philippa Rees takes the reader on a monumental journey through the history of everything – with the evolution of man as one side of the coin and involution the other. The poetic narrative is augmented by learned and extensive footnotes offering background knowledge which in themselves are fascinating. In effect there are two books, offering a right and left brain approach. The twin spirals of a DNA shaped book intertwine external and internal and find, between them, one journey, Man’s recovery of Himself., and (hopefully) the Creation’s recovery of a nobler Man.From the same review “The reader who finishes the book will not be the same as the one who began it. New ideas will expand the mind but more profoundly, the deep, moving power of the verse will affect the heart.(Marianne Rankin: Director of Communications, Alister Hardy Trust)

Story Behind The Book

From the foreword, written by poet AR Lewis: 'On Calico Wings', the title of this long awaited second book by Jan Hedger, develops beyond the content of her fi rst book 'Words in Imagination'. The author’s writing includes many aspects of life today, and shares comparisons with the past, showing great sympathy with all her subjects. Her nature poems contain word pictures to compare with the great poets of the past, yet remain true to today’s way of life. Gentle humour, love of music, coupled with real empathy and understanding for those affected by war, military personal, their families and friends, reaching out to all who read her work. 'On Calico Wings' is a book which contains poems deserving, like all good poetry, to be performed to a live audience and the author often does this. However, this book can equally be enjoyed as a travelling companion, to be opened and pondered upon, on the journey through life.

Reviews

When Jan invited me to review On Calico Wings, I was delighted: Jan Hedger has a real gift for visual imagery and putting the reader in place of the poet. The book is beautifully crafted and well written and is full of humanity and emotion. The book takes you on a spiritual journey of highs and lows and reveals something of the poet’s life, emotions which everyone has experienced and somehow Jan puts it all into perspective. The book is divided into several sections, the first being Calico, which is my favourite poem of all in this section. Calico is an amazing poem and everything is perfect. Close your eyes and you have feel the waves moving and is a wonderfully scripted journey of love with repetition of the name Calico like the waves webbing and then flowing – quite brilliant. You can feel the tide of Calico’s life repeated in the ebb and flow of her name. Wedding Dress Shopping is another masterful poem and the two lines at the end sum up everything very well: “Eyes meet in a moment of clarity, This is the one.” Jan has summed up what most of us believe when we choose our special dress so well. Of course, no Jan Hedger book would be complete without some of the touching poems of forces poetry, a site for the armed forces to publish their work. In this section Shot at Dawn stands out. If there is one poem I would urge someone to read from this section a least once, preferably more, it is Too Young. This poem actually made me cry, it is so poignant: how many boys were put in such a position? It speaks volumes to and I hope it does to you. With this book, Jan has reached the top in the art of writing poetry: On Calico Wings is not old-fashioned, but has more humanity and emotion in it than I have ever felt. It is a triumph: a book to make you laugh, cry, feel sad and elated, happy, but most of all I hope it makes people think. I have always been a fan of Jan’s writing and when you have read this anthology, I know you will too. Bobbie Coelho Andover 2nd January 2010

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Involution-An Odyssey Reconciling Science to God

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