Poetry at first light - the poems of John Bennett

Poet and photographer John Bennett gets up most mornings well before dawn, and takes himself down to his local estuary. This time, about half an hour before light, reveals exquisite colours, with every morning different from the last. He calls this time 'Eos' - Eos being the Greek goddess who opened the gates for the sun, Helios, to ride his chariot through and bring daybreak. John says that rising in time to see eos is an opportunity to reacquaint ourselves with the traditional elements of earth, water, air and light. Before we start worrying about our finances, work, family. Before we pick up technology and connect ourselves with the digital world, eos allows us to just 'be', in the natural world, much as our ancestors were.  In this conversation with Gretchen Miller, John walks us through his local forest reserve, Jagun, through which a creek runs, before it reaches the sea. They talk of the birds, trees and landscape which his poetry obsessively documents, about how to be a 'decent man', and how to pay attention when you're chronically distracted by the many fascinating things the world can bring. Music in this program was Hodie Response 1, by Nick Tsiavos, who likes to play at the other end of the day - after dusk and into the night. Sound Engineer: Russell Stapleton.  February 2016