It was only recently brought to my attention by one of my readers in the U.S and then another in Australia that if you Google: ‘scott hastie quotes‘ and then select Images you now get an impressive blizzard of features – page after page of pick-ups that now has got to the stage that it compares favourably with any other poet, living or dead!! Which totally blew me away, when I first saw it.
Seems like both Timeless and Splinters supported by the recent digital re-release of my two ‘Younger Man!’ collections: Selected Poetry and New Poetry (first published in 1991 & 1995 respectively!) have really helped me break through to that more permanent and (dare one say it – eternal) level of creative presence around the world now.
Especially when you bear in mind that absolutely none of these inclusions are any of mine, or the team’s doing, at all… And is a simply a case of folk all over the world, I suppose… Individually discovering my writing and giving it enough careful attention to be picking out what they think are the best lines and appreciating them enough to take the time and trouble to register and feature them on the net. Either posting their thoughtful efforts themselves, or by submitting them to major Classic, Famous or Favourite Quote sites – Which is altogether Brilliant!
And finally fulfils an oath I took, as a wildly ambitious and idealistic youth some fifty years ago now! With my best buddy and lifelong friend, the painter Ian Stirling – whose inspiring spirit I have certainly been spending some especially joyful time with, ever since…
That said, following that deeply touching and revealing incident at the tomb of Raphael in Rome, I have always worked glad-heartedly with a perspective that determined any enduring effect my writing will or won’t have in the future won’t be truly estimable till after my death. Which I am entirely happy about, because who needs all the trappings of undue fame and fortune when you are still here? Given how all that fluff and nonsense has so demonstrably ruined and put far more incandescent individuals than me completely off their stroke!
congratulations!
Congratulations! Your poetry is amazing!
They truly look gorgeous!