Basil Dowling reads his own poems

Press, 29 April 1981, Page 19

Basil Dowling reads his own poems

Listening

The New Zealand poet, i Basil Dowling, an expatriate i in England for the last 30 : years, is 70 today. His early volumes of poems were full of the images of Canterbury : where he grew up. These included “Signs and Wond ers” and “Canterbury and Other Poems” published in the 19405. In later collections he has continued to explore the topics dearest to him — •

nature, religion, the pain and evil of war and the inward spiritual pilgrimage. Tonight Basil Dowling reads a selection of his unpublished poems specially recorded by David Delany for Radio New Zealand in London. Concert, 9.35 p.m. The Sexes 3ZM began a five-week series yesterday called “The

Sexes.” The first week is on the subject of androgyny; further programmes will deal with other aspects of sexuality and sensuality. Reith lecture lan Kennedy’s 1980 Reith lectures for the 8.8. C. created a degree of controversy amongst the medical profession in Britain. He took as his general topic, “Unmasking Medicine.” Kennedy is reader in law at King's College, London. His fourth lecture, broadcast this Wednesday evening on Concert radio at 8.30 and then repeated on Sunday, is called “If I were you, Mrs B. . .” He contends that the majority of decisions made by doctors are not technical — “they are instead moral and ethical.” lan Kennedy adds that, put bluntly, he' is calling for “a wholesale re-examination of the sphere of alleged competence of the doctor.”

Play triology In the second play in a trilogy called “There Is No Phoenix” by Olwynne Macrae the over-all theme is marriage and separation; this week Eve and Garry are at a crossroads. After the third play there will be a discussion on the topics raised in the series. National, 8.45 p.m. Schumann Lieder In a direct studio broadcast from Christchurch the soprano Ruth Hawkey, with Wallace Woodley piano, sings Schumann’s Liederkreis, Op 39. This set of 12 songs, settings of poems by Eichendorff, was composed in 1840, one of the happiest years in Schumann’s life for he could at last see the prospect of marrying his beloved Clara likely to be fulfilled. Concert, 7 p.m.