Poetry and About Poetry

Parables & Faxes by Gwyneth Lewis My rating: 4 of 5 stars Gwyneth Lewis is a Welsh writer whose poetry in English is infused with the Welsh language and land. But there are touches of cummings and Dickinson in such poems as “A Fanciful Marriage” and “Annunciation.”Her humor and slantwise look at living in this world are graced with a humane touch and a lyrical voice. She uses patterns of lines with end half-rhymes that are enjambed so the music is there but subtle. Lewis views modern life through a lens of fable and some whimsy, weaving the human and the natural in close identification. She is unheralded today in the US and should be read as a partial antidote to the prosy fracturing of the late Postmodern verse that pervades MFA programs. View all my reviews

Parables & Faxes by Gwyneth Lewis My rating: 4 of 5 stars Gwyneth Lewis is a Welsh writer whose poetry in English is infused with the Welsh language and land. But there are touches of cummings and Dickinson in such poems as "A Fanciful Marriage" and "Annunciation."Her humor and slantwise look at living in this world are graced with a humane touch and a lyrical voice. She uses patterns of lines with end half-rhymes that are enjambed so the music is there but subtle. Lewis views modern life through a lens of fable and some whimsy, weaving the human and the natural in close identification. She is unheralded today in the US and should be read as a partial antidote to the prosy fracturing of the late Postmodern verse that pervades MFA programs. View all my reviews

Allegro Poetry Magazine will publish my poem "Happy Halloween" in November 2015 http://allegropoetry.org/

Allegro Poetry Magazine will publish my poem “Happy Halloween” in November 2015 http://allegropoetry.org/

Yellow Chair Review has accepted “Ghosts: Paper or Plastic” for their Horror Issue set to release October https://www.facebook.com/yellowchairreview?fref=ts

Yellow Chair Review has accepted "Ghosts: Paper or Plastic" for their Horror Issue set to release October https://www.facebook.com/yellowchairreview?fref=ts

Touch: The Journal of Healing has accepted 4 of my poems for publications this fall. http://www.thelivesyoutouch.com/touchjournal/Home/index.html

Touch: The Journal of Healing has accepted 4 of my poems for publications this fall. http://www.thelivesyoutouch.com/touchjournal/Home/index.html

Empty Sink has published 2 of my poems: http://emptysinkpublishing.com/poetry/two-poems-david-anthony-sam/

Empty Sink has published 2 of my poems: http://emptysinkpublishing.com/poetry/two-poems-david-anthony-sam/

Fire to Fire by Mark Doty My rating: 5 of 5 stars A courageous and emotionally powerful collection, "Fire to Fire" exhibits Mark Doty's poetical range and aesthetic. He speaks with clarity of language and image, is not afraid to allow the natural world to speak for him, and faces death and life after the deaths of so many close to him with honesty and impossible hope: "All smolder and oxblood, these flowerheads, flames of August: fierce bronze, or murky rose, petals concluded in gold— And as if fire called its double down the paired goldfinches come swerving quick on the branching towers, so the blooms sway with the heft of hungers indistinguishable, now, from the blossoms." "Sometimes we wake not knowing how we came to lie here, or who has crowned us with these temporary, precious stones." He reveals the survivor's wonder and guilt when he survives when so many friends and a lover die in the great AIDS crisis: "And why did a god so investe

Fire to Fire by Mark Doty My rating: 5 of 5 stars A courageous and emotionally powerful collection, “Fire to Fire” exhibits Mark Doty’s poetical range and aesthetic. He speaks with clarity of language and image, is not afraid to allow the natural world to speak for him, and faces death and life after the deaths of so many close to him with honesty and impossible hope: “All smolder and oxblood, these flowerheads, flames of August: fierce bronze, or murky rose, petals concluded in gold— And as if fire called its double down the paired goldfinches come swerving quick on the branching towers, so the blooms sway with the heft of hungers indistinguishable, now, from the blossoms.” “Sometimes we wake not knowing how we came to lie here, or who has crowned us with these temporary, precious stones.” He reveals the survivor’s wonder and guilt when he survives when so many friends and a lover die in the great AIDS crisis: “And why did a god so invested in permanence choose so fragile a medium, t

Scar Tissue: Poems by Charles Wright My rating: 4 of 5 stars This 2006 collection by Charles Wright describes the “scar tissue” of living and of nostalgia for real or imagined better times. Wright is not a “nature poet” so much as a philosophical one as Coleridge described Wordsworth, one who uses his relationship with nature to explore and expose life’s challenge of finding meaning. The experience of sunset becomes an analogy for human biography: “If night is our last address This is the pace we moved from, Backs on fire, our futures hard-edged and sure to arrive…. “And where are we headed for? The country of Narrative, that dark territory Which spells out our stories in sentences, which gives them an end and beginning…” Wright’s poetry challenges us—not with obscurity or experimental language, but with living fully awake and aware, where “Something unordinary persists,/ Something unstill, neversleeping, just possible past reason.” The time spent being so challenged is well worth it.

Scar Tissue: Poems by Charles Wright My rating: 4 of 5 stars This 2006 collection by Charles Wright describes the "scar tissue" of living and of nostalgia for real or imagined better times. Wright is not a "nature poet" so much as a philosophical one as Coleridge described Wordsworth, one who uses his relationship with nature to explore and expose life's challenge of finding meaning. The experience of sunset becomes an analogy for human biography: "If night is our last address This is the pace we moved from, Backs on fire, our futures hard-edged and sure to arrive.... "And where are we headed for? The country of Narrative, that dark territory Which spells out our stories in sentences, which gives them an end and beginning..." Wright's poetry challenges us---not with obscurity or experimental language, but with living fully awake and aware, where "Something unordinary persists,/ Something unstill, neversleeping, just possible past reaso

Stoneboat Literary Review will publish my poem “Recapitulation” in its upcoming issue.

Stoneboat Literary Review will publish my poem “Recapitulation” in its upcoming issue.

Stoneboat Literary Review will publish my poem "Recapitulation" in its upcoming issue.

Red Savina Review will publish my poem “Stone Birds” in its Spring 2016 issue.

Red Savina Review will publish my poem "Stone Birds" in its Spring 2016 issue.

The latest issue of Clementine include my poem “Last Journal”

The latest issue of Clementine include my poem "Last Journal"

The latest issue of Yellowchair Review includes my poem “The Alien in Meeting” http://ow.ly/Qmww6

The latest issue of Yellowchair Review includes my poem "The Alien in Meeting" http://ow.ly/Qmww6