Inner peace in the wilds

Press, 20 November 1982, Page 16

Inner peace in the wilds

The Second Meadow. By Archie Hill. Hutchinson, 1982. 118pp.517.50. (Reviewed by Ralf Unger) ' A “First Meadow” person is one here described as frightened to range too far because of the unknown. Only a few explore into the Second Meadow and fewer still into the third, the meadows of mental and spiritual experience. The mass of us want the safety of the woods to run to, safe familiar things. The author, in this beautiful prose poem, expresses part of his midlife crisis following upon a youth in abject poverty, imprisonment after burglaries, ■alcoholism, marriage and divorce, and some success as a writer, going back to his roots of childhood. In that beginning he was mainly influenced by a poacher who taught him survival and the discovery of loving things. Camped on the estate of a friend, he is within three miles of the Big house’ and his car at all times, with meadows separated by gates and fences, but nevertheless for the three months he has set himself he manages to avoid all contact with his fellow man. Only a barking dog in the distance brings back thoughts of accustomed life. Although he moves in a small radius during his self-imposed exile, he survives by trapping rabbits, shooting pigeons and - eating wild plants. • He jots down ideas

with ink made from a weed on to bark that he specially treats, and shouts out-his songs to the birds in the trees.' His mind rambles continually through the distant past and his birthplace in the Black" Country of England to which he has now returned. He gets into touch with his great-great-grandfather’s Green Country before the smoke and grime of factories transformed it, and reopens his eyes to find the enchantment which he had glimpsed as a child, but which flew away too soon. Eventually,, he has to return to the world, no longer content with himself or it, wanting to stay.jnside the Second Meadow of his mind and find truth and peace, and be never more a prisoner. The last thought he leaves us with is that the Second Meadow is now inside him and one day he will go back to it, and explore it in full, and then go out and find the Third Meadow for sure. Many men. have returned to the winderness at some crisis in their lives, to recharge the energy that has been dissipated and mis-aimed. This little book, apart from its numerous practical hints about survival in the wild, is an outstanding exploration of a journey into feelings in the wilderness; not far from busy main highways with their constant traffic and timed arrivals and departures, to the inner peace of a secure child.