Parallels: Selected Poems of Rene Dee and Chris Yates

This remarkable collection of poetry by two friends whose work is in some way similar, but also refreshingly different, focuses on ten primary themes that engagingly highlight and make eternally memorable, experiences that are common to many people, but rarely as well written as this. The phrase, ‘True wit is Nature to advantage dress’d / What oft was thought but ne'er so well express’d’, applies very poignantly to this collection.

Rene and Chris served in the Intelligence Corps and met in a now redundant army camp in 1965. Their friendship has endured for more than fifty-six years, sustained even over the thirty-five years when Chris lived in Australia and Rene travelled the world. They collaborated on this book to select poems that depict their lives. The poems stir the emotions of, for example, adventure, love, family and nation. They can provoke, they often amuse. Rene and Chris hope you enjoy them.