Amazon published my review of David Anthony's book "Words To Say" but they took their time about it.
Words To Say
by David Gwilym Anthony
I enthusiastically recommend this book.
If anyone wants to understand what it was like to be a decent man who lived in England in the second half of the 20th century, they would find most answers in these poems.
David Anthony is completely comfortable with the sonnet which he uses as naturally as ordinary speech. His sonnets encompass many moods and events.
His villanelle “Plague”, about the foot-and-mouth epidemic of 2001, is a heart-breaking evocation of the British countryside during that experience. It must be a poem that will stay in the literature.
His humorous poems are genuinely funny. His serious poems are grave and unforced.
The poem’s content always conceals the consummate craft that contains
it. Because the poems make no strident effort to be noticed they sink deeper into the reader’s mind.
Sensationalised events become human again in this poet’s quiet words. Topics that only a real poet dare approach, such as the murder of little Jamie Bulger by two older children, are seen with wide compassion and social involvement.
There is something almost Shakespearean about his ability to respect each character in his poems. There are no small roles here.
“On the Suicide of a Friend” is intimate and loving.
“Boy Soldier” inspired by a faded photo of his father at the age of fourteen is quietly poignant.
A peopled landscape is always present.
These poems will give great pleasure to those without expert knowledge and even more to those who realise how much skill was needed to produce such simplicity.
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