Sharing our Horizon - Xenia Tran

. .

Résumé :
Welcome to Sharing Our Horizon, a selection of poems and photographs from the popular blog Whippet Wisdom that capture daily moments in the Scottish Highlands with our two adopted whippets, Eivor and Pearl.

Like most dogs, Eivor and Pearl love spending time in nature. They have taken us to places we had never visited before and the restorative energies of those quiet beaches, mountains and glens have played a big part in their rehabilitation.

The poems and images show the beauty in each moment and the potential for the healing that spending time in nature brings. The prologue and title poem 'Sharing our Horizon' invites us to pause and see the gifts in these moments. The opening poem 'Before the Daffodils' is a distilled version of conversations and observations in and around animal rehoming shelters. It reminds us that sometimes, dogs are surrendered when people realise that simply loving a dog is not enough. A dog also deserves regular exercise, regular stimulation, socialisation and play-time. A good home provides all of this, in addition to love, food and shelter.

The majority of poems are a modern take on the ancient Japanese poetry forms of haibun, haiku and tanka. Traditionally, these poems begin with quiet poetic observation and conclude with a moment of philosophical of spiritual insight. They are written in rhythm with the seasons and the fluctuations of the weather within those seasons.

Like the traditional haiku poets, I would describe haiku as a way of life, a way to look and marvel at nature and see the magic in the ordinary. To me, this is very much in the spirit of how Eivor and Pearl look at the joys of the everyday and the beauty nature offers. By capturing these moments in a few words others can experience a glimpse of what we see and connect it to their own experience.

For those who are interested in finding out more about the history of these Japanese poetry forms, the book offers a helpful section 'About the Poetry Forms' at the back of the book as well as a Bibliography for further reading.

The overall theme of the poems and images is how rewarding adopting a rescue dog can be, how they enjoy being part of a pack and how they thrive when allowed to spend time in natural settings. The natural beauty of the Scottish Highlands is visible in the images throughout.

Sixty per cent of net profits from the sale of this book will be shared with animal rehoming charities at the end of each financial year.

Biographie:
Xenia Tran was born in the Netherlands in 1962 and began writing and journaling at a young age. She enjoyed reading poetry in Dutch, French and English and soon English became her language of choice for writing poetry and short stories.

Her early studies were interrupted by a desire to travel and explore different cultures. It wasn't until she was happily married and settled in London that she decided to return to study as a mature student.

She studied for degrees in French Studies and in Applied Linguistics at Birkbeck College, University of London, whilst working full-time as an administrator in a research centre for a French company and running her own holistic practice as a complementary therapist.
When she and her husband relocated to Kendal to be closer to her husband's ageing mother she joined a women's writing group where her passion for creative writing reignited. She submitted a few poems to publications and websites and was delighted to see them accepted. She wrote short stories and poems about their adopted rescue dogs with the idea of creating a book to help raise funds for animal shelters.

She worked as a volunteer in a local animal shelter and later did voluntary work for a foster-based rescue organisation.

After attending a Summer School at Queen's University Belfast she enrolled at Newcastle University, where she completed a postgraduate course in Creative Writing before relocating to the Scottish Highlands.

The beauty of the Highland landscape and the quality of its light inspired her to invest in a good camera and take photographs to accompany her writing for her blog Whippet Wisdom. It was meant to be a simple place to record the walks with their adopted dogs in images and words, an organic place to develop her writing and photography. It quickly gained a loyal following, she met and connected with poets, fiction writers and photographers around the world, and in 2018 she started a second blog, Tranature, to share her personal observations on nature.