Chronology of Desire
by Richard Young

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Few of us have lived a life as full of change as Richard Young. From his adolescence in Acton, West London in the 1960s through his time in Italy, Hong Kong, and then China, all the way to his later life in the States, watching his family grow, Young’s life has been punctuated by major moves and heartaches, opportunities taken and forsaken, and lessons learned. In this collection of memoiristic free-verse poems, Young’s fascinating and cosmopolitan life is recounted, from teenagehood into his senior years. Organized into major sections lined up with major moves he made, Young tells his story chronologically—proceeding from his youth in Acton into his four years at Oxford, five teaching and traveling in Italy, then returning to teach and write back home in London. This is followed by a period in his thirties, when he moves to Hong Kong, then China, where he meets his wife, and wraps up with his family life in the US, as he watches his children age and family expand. Many of these poems are meaningful, heartfelt expressions of desire, inspired by Young’s belief in the Buddhist tenet that freedom from desire means freedom from suffering. Young draws on the rich tapestry of history, ancient myth, and the symbology of the various cultures to which he has a connection to examine the meaning of life—our shared experience and his own. In particular, Young has a penchant for drawing on the hexagrams of the I Ching, relating his poems back to their grounding in the four elements and the overarching energies that underwrite our experience and our world. Accompanied by gorgeous illustrations by artist Doug Haynes, this collection is sure to make a vibrant, heartening addition to the shelves of anyone interested in poetry or memoir—especially those of us interested in mythology or symbology looking for a tale of an extraordinary life lived.

www.chronologyofdesire.com

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What a pleasure to read the map of someone’s life through the poems they have written as they lived it. This book documents Richard’s amazingly rich and varied life in two ways. Firstly, the informative introductions to each phase of his life – from Acton in London, to Oxford, to Italy as a teacher of English, back to England for postgraduate training and work, then China and finally, the USA. These introductions are not only immensely informative, they are also unflinching in their candour. And they provide the backdrop against which the poems can be read. Secondly, the poems themselves, which offer a selection of many different verse forms, presented in varied page formats, and enhanced by the suggestive illustrations of Doug Haynes. A feast of poetry to enjoy and to reflect on. Alan Maley

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Richard Young is professor emeritus of English at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he has taught a number of courses on sociolinguistics, syntax, language acquisition, and more. He is a scholar and lover of mathematics and linguistics with an abiding interest in religion and esoteric knowledge. A poet since his youth, he has been writing for more than sixty years. Young’s passion in research has been in understanding the relationship between the use of the language and the social contexts that language both reflects and creates, a subject he has written on extensively. He is the author of Variation in Interlanguage Morphology (1991), Language and Interaction: An advanced resource book (2008), and Discursive Practice in Language Learning and Teaching (2009), as well as co-editor of Talking and Testing: Discourse approaches to the assessment of oral proficiency (1998), which he co-edited with A. W. He. He was also editor of The Training of International Teaching Assistants, a special 1989 issue of English for Specific Purposes. In addition to this, he has authored over sixty journal articles himself. He was honoured by the Chinese province of Hubei as Chutian Xuezhe in 2016. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with his wife, Ling Ling Ho, and their two cats, Chicken and Egg. He has a daughter living with her husband and grandchildren in Chicago and a son living with his wife in Falls Church, Virginia.

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Contributors

Author

Richard Young

Illustrator

Doug Haynes