In the face of suffering and death, what is life for? The poems in Feral Idylls attempt to confront this question through an exploration of the lives of animals that inhabit the natural environment in the area where the poet lives. The collection begins with a “Prelude” introducing the basic themes of the sequence. It is followed by twelve poems which use the lives of twelve animals to explore the various struggles which constitute their lives. The concluding poem brings the established themes into the life of man, represented by the legendary Gilgamesh. The semi-allegorical nature of the poems is presented through a patina of realism. Appearing throughout the poems is the massive black hole at the center of our galaxy representing, perhaps, death, the afterlife, the bardo or intermediate state—or a presence beyond our understanding.
Frederick Bauman is the author of Enneagrammatic Improvisations, a book of poems published by Codhill Press in 2007. He is also the author of Periwinkle, a semi-autobiographical novel of the sixties published in 2001. He is married and lives in the Catskill region of New York State.
