David Anthony Sam's Blog, page 129
April 5, 2020
HopeChallenge: Post a photo from where you are in quarantine that shows 1 thing that gives you joy in spite of everything.
HopeChallenge: Post a photo from where you are in quarantine that shows 1 thing that gives you joy in spite of everything.
April 3, 2020
March 31, 2020
Poems of solace during hard times – courtesy of The Atlantic
Here are some Poems of solace during hard times – courtesy of The Atlantic.
March 30, 2020
Review: To Cleave: Poems
To Cleave: Poems by Barbara Rockman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Barbara Rockman’s “To Cleave” is an amazingly beautiful, poignant,
powerful book. Here we find what we seldom do in a collection-a careful
eye that truly sees both the natural world and the very human; a craft
that seeks just the right word, not just for sense but for sound and
thus a music so often missing in contemporary poetry, rich in assonance,
alliteration, quiet and subtle half-rhymes, never overbearing, always
true.
Sections seem devoted to a backpacking trip, her childhood,
raising her daughters, natural disasters like Fukushima, married life,
love, loss, and love again. The emotion is not wrought with false notes
or strained surrealism. The images are carefully chose, metaphor and
symbolic truths living below their quiet surface. The domestic life
blends with the natural world. A certain knowledge of geology and
biology adds fullness. There are poems where she sews herself into
oneness with that natural world. The bittersweet taste of death and loss
add savor.
This is the finest collection of poetry by a
contemporary writer that I have read in too long a time. If you love
reading poetry, this is a meal and a dessert you will relish. If you are
poet, as am I, you will be filled that positive envy–the one that
drives you back to trying to sing with words the way Rockman does in
these poems. To be read and reread, I am certain.
Review: Walking the Sunken Boards
Walking the Sunken Boards by Linda Blaskey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is actually a collection by four women: Linda Blaskey, Gail Braune
Comorat, Wendy Elizabeth Ingersoll and Jane C. Miller. Here are poems by
four individual women, all with singular voices, but a harmony in
beautiful chorus made from the disharmonies of living. Here are poems
that are by turns bitter, hopeful, loving, strong–poems that reveal
their individual journeys as if true to a larger mythic simplicity.
I could not want to nor will not single one of these women out for
special praise. The poems are of a consistent high quality. They each
make wonderful use of imagery from nature, rural life, family history.
Husbands, fathers, children, friendships–that my rend or mend or both.
You read and hear their truths.
I look forward to rereading the collection and hearing their voices over again.
Review: Irregular Images
Irregular Images by Edward Ahern
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Edward Ahern’s collection
of poems, “Irregular Images,” bears reading, but the quality is indeed
irregular. His “At the Cottage” is a fine example of a sestina and “The
Shoal” has a simple eloquence. You do have to read through others that
are less engaging or not up to the same quality of craftwork.
iō Literary Journal will publish my poem “Unknown Alternate” online in an upcoming issue
iō Literary Journal will publish my poem “Unknown Alternate” online in an upcoming issue. My thanks for this and for their having previously published 3 other of my poems.
