Only and Again

by Dustin Pickering, Sufia Khatoon (Illustrator)

With Love as the Muse, the poet struggles within eternal realms of question. His doubts fuel his love of Creation and he accepts the burden of the eternal recurrence. The mystery puzzles and defines him as he scrapes through all relevant philosophical trajectories. Finally he recognizes that the fruit of philosophy is rotting on its vine—metaphysics is dead!These poems are dedicated to real people whose value to the poet is immeasurably without reconciliation to the world of appearance. This collection ponders and pontificates the age-old questions.

92 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 16, 2021

About the author

Dustin D. Pickering founded Transcendent Zero Press in 2010 with the quarterly magazine Harbinger Asylum, the poet describes himself as "the outcome of many traumatic life experiences." Nevertheless, Pickering embraces the optimistic personal attitude that destiny is what we make of it. He has attended several festivals, including Austin International Poetry Fest and Beat fest, and has published work appearing in the di-verse-city 2013anthology. When he is not hosting poetry readings around town or coordinating events, he enjoys music and time alone. He currently lives in the Clear Lake area of Houston, Texas.

Reviews

[Kiran Bhat · Rating 4 out of 5]

A unique experiment into the condition of love and its pathways

Only and Again is a collection of poems in which Pickering makes a space in literature for the emotional muses in his life. The language is full of longing and melancholy. Pickering shows a lot of passion and love for these women who are no longer by his side, and his language glistens like strands of hair that have fallen by the wayside.

[Christopher Manieri · Rating 4 out of 5]

A captivating collection of poetry, “Only and Again” conveys both deep emotion and profound thought. Pickering shows that he is an authentic love poet, driven by a great appreciation for beauty, that deeper beauty which points to the spiritual dimension of existence. The power of unrequited love is definitely a force in his work, while his skilful modernist (or post-modernist) style offers certain ambiguities which open the way for multiple interpretations. With an impressive use of figurative language, the collection contains much sorrow and longing. But overall, I believe his passion for beauty ultimately triumphs over pain.