The T.E. Lawrence Poems is Gwendolyn MacEwen’s most integrated, complete and respected work. It is now recognised as her signature poetic achievement inspired after a single event. “In 1962, I was staying in a hotel in Tiberias, Israel; the tall, white-haired proprietor invited me downstairs one evening and served me syrupy tea and a plate of fruit. He showed me a series of old sepia tone photographs which lined the walls – photographs of blurred riders on camels riding to the left into some uncharted desert just beyond the door. Some of them were signed. ‘It’s Lawrence isn’t it?’ I asked, walking up to one. ‘Yes,’ said my host, offering me a huge section of an orange. ‘I rode with him once a long time ago. I see you always carry a pen and paper to write things down. I thought you’d be interested; I thought you’d like to know.’ These poems were written some twenty years later.”