“I try to put music in my poetry and poetry in my music.”
I began writing poetry in 2004 to provide texts for a Cantata called Journey of Discovery that I I wrote for the Belleville Philharmonic in commemoration of the bi-centennial of the Louis and Clark Expedition and have not stopped since. Since then I have completed two books of poetry- Unity Tree (2015) (Amazon.com) and From the Mountains to the Sea (2020) (Amazon.com)
From the Mountains to the Sea
This book consists of poems that celebrate the beauty of nature and of community.
Mr. Howard is a conductor and composer as well as a poet whose mission is to include poetry in his music and music in his poetry.
Unity Tree
Unity Tree is a poetic adventure divided into five sections: “Our Island Home”, “Music of the Spheres”, “Human Family Picnic”, “Ancient Footprints” and “A Place to Call Home”.
This volume celebrates the beauty of nature, the cosmos and the human community. Unity Tree is Robert Charles Howard’s first book of poetry.
Following is a sample of my poetry:
Dolphin Ballet
A graceful water weaving dolphin
swirls wakes of gentle waves –
a white, silver blue phantom
shimmering in the noonday sun.
Piercing the surface,
she dances an aquatic ballet
of corkscrew pirouettes
and majestic somersaults.
Diving beneath the spray
she churns her engine upward –
soaring through the flaming hoop
to the “oohs”and applause
of a throng of short-sleeved hominids
bleachered beyond the rails.
Plunging into quiet depths,
she lingers for a moment
perhaps to recall the fresh sea air
and the borderless waters
in the golden days before the ships came.
Additional Samples: