Review of How To Wash A Heart by Bhanu Kapil

Hospitality confers a plethora of emotions upon both host and guest. Some of these sensations, like empathy and gratitude, seem obvious. Others, like intrusiveness and resentment, seem less so. Cultural hospitality evolved historically as a survival trait, inhabiting the very center of tribal society. In her new collection of poems, How to Wash a Heart, Bhanu Kapil examines this interesting phenomenon with intimacy and tough-mindedness.

Nothing, if not original, Kapil sets her collection up in five sections of eight untitled poems apiece. The compositions are twenty lines long in the first section and twenty-two lines in the remaining four. She telescopes in and out, engaging in stories, images, scenes, and speculations of an Indian immigrant. Most of the lines are short and they work well lending emphasis and exposing drama. For more of my review go here:  http://dougholder.blogspot.com/2021/02/how-to-wash-heart-by-bhanu-kapil.html

Review of Farmers, Queens, Trains, and Clowns

 Urban infrastructure rules! g emil reutter masterfully escorts his readers through the gritty limbo of despondent souls and derelict sprawl in his new collection of rust-laden and poetically powerful dirges entitled Farmers, Queens, Trains, and Clowns.  In reutter’s world “no one is safe.” Fame and celebrity are phantoms. Barrooms proliferate. Nature does intrude but usually does not comfort. Birdsongs of dawn and hope are met by a madman with a hatchet. Other birds become bullies. Only love, faultless observation, and an attachment to the past, both to place and to another time, seem to matter. These exceptions, however, are intrinsic to the poet’s persona and center that persona with dreams of commiseration and tenderness and feathery lyrics. Here is the link for the rest of the review: http://dougholder.blogspot.com/2021/02/farmers-queens-trains-and-clowns-by-g.html

Four of My Poems Published by Wilderness House

Four of my poems, Appearances, Status Quo, Webs, and Poem with a Line from Terence, were just published by Wilderness House Literary Review. Thank you to the Editor and Publisher Steve Glines and the Poetry Editor Ravi Teja Yelamanchili.  Here is the link: https://www.whlreview.com/no-15.4/poetry/DennisDaly.pdf

My poem Psalms in Darkness Published by Amethyst Review

 My poem Psalms in Darkness has just been published by Amethyst Review, a British journal. Thank you to the Editor, Sarah Law. Here is the link: https://bit.ly/2Xa4KqM

My Poetry Sold by Local Independent Book Store

Manchester By The Book, a well known independent book store, has copies of all seven of my books of poetry and poetic translations. The store is located at 27 Union Street, Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA. It remains open every day. Its phone number is 978-525-2929 and its email address is manchesterbythebook@gmail.com. Many of its customers consider it the best used book store in the country. Stop in and see for yourself. COVID precautions are observed.

My Poem, The Dark Psalms of Doctor John Faustus, Published

My poem in five sections entitled The Dark Psalms of Doctor John Faustus was just published in Pensive, A Global Journal of Spirituality and the Arts. Much thanks to the editors, especially Alex Levering Kern. Here is the indirect link: https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fpensivejournal.com%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1m9o2gUm90IvqhQd9eCuVx-S3ReUfVsRFnnS4avb3ajLSGfvCCK9kwz-4&h=AT1Lb5FucNspFGb4pbEJ4V0srgZXq7gh2mAc8PHo33gCPHI6SvAW1eKioZTMVW3z7IZsMTf30aBCBXTmJv-j0bmfcz7QBQvPue9gY--r-lrTwHaLo0b_8Y4BGe0Lp-bdy4M&__tn__=%2CmH-R&c[0]=AT2K-qMnMnxHaGh5ybJnl3IethVabW-8atczpgmTIop9s-qUbWuY-2syNADA0M8ouDbCcqXBAGaLnkz4wSI-eRiTNU6AsIsVwDCmrzgb5Kk2BuQcYPF1OzSBcrARuXihI9iF__1x5Bp1WrCZK0lI1oQbfHBD704MpBO2ntSNhOWHX2wS3HjOERqFqQW-jm8dDqnHQVcH_My piece is on pages 50 and 51. It is an impressive new magazine with many wonderful writers and artists.

Three of my Poems Published in Muddy River

 Three of my poems, Shield Wall, Battle Axe, and Short Sword have just been published in Muddy River Poetry Review. Thank you to editor Zvi Sesling. Here is the Link: https://muddyriverpoetryreview.webs.com/Dennis%20Daly-4.pdf

Review of Library of My Hands

Illuminated wonder. Musical sparkle. The transcendent light within everyone. These are the objects of Joseph Heithaus’ collection of intimate and ecstatic poems entitled Library of My Hands. The book reads like a revelation of family, nature, birth, and death, but always through humanity’s compassionate lens. It reminds one of Thomas Merton, or, more to the point, Merton’s mystical side. Heithaus covers poetic territory not much dissimilar from Merton, a poet in his own right, who at the corner of Fourth and Walnut streets in Louisville, Kentucky, on a shopping mission for his monastery, observed his fellow passerbys, “shining like the sun.” Merton believed he had seen the goodness and the beauty at man’s core or, perhaps, he had espied the individual hearts of his fellow travelers. Heithaus runs with a kindred metaphor of light, using his own perspectives and experiences as an approach to metaphysical or, at least, visionary phenomena. For more of my review of Library of My Hands go here: http://dougholder.blogspot.com/2020/10/library-of-my-hands-by-joseph-heithaus.html

My Poem A Plea Published in Amethyst Review

My poem A Plea was recently published in the Amethyst Review (September issue). Much thanks to Sarah Law, the Editor-in-Chief. Here is the direct link: https://amethystmagazine.org/2020/09/13/a-plea-a-poem-by-dennis-daly/

My Poem Presence Published by Amethyst Review

My poem Presence has just been published by Amethyst Review (October issue). Much thanks to Sarah Law, the Editor-in -Chief. The poem is part of a new book length manuscript of 55+ rondels. Here is the direct link: https://amethystmagazine.org/2020/10/04/presence-a-poem-by-dennis-daly/

Here is the general link: https://amethystmagazine.org/

 

Review of Sprawled Asleep by David P. Miller

Too often contemporary poetry dwells on the versifier rather than the verse. The confessional reigns and the uniqueness and self-importance of the poet drives both the narrative and the music. In the worst and most extreme examples of this navel-gazing art the poet and his readers develop an unhealthy bond of elitism, which separates them from any objective world view and renounces the joy of detail shared by soulful creation. David Miller’s first full length book, Sprawled Asleep, does not do this. Its meditations are directed by an exactness of observation that deemphasizes the poet-observer to the point of irrelevance. As this poet-observer fades, his objects achieve a singular, eye-opening clarity that leaves one somewhat stunned. The motif in which this observer delineates his objects is often mass transportation. Alienation, counter intuitive as usual, finds a niche here.​ For more of my review go here:  https://dougholder.blogspot.com/2020/09/sprawled-asleep-by-david-p-miller.html

Review of Night Walking with Nathaniel

 

Thank you to Lee Varon for her recent review of one of my early books, Night Walking with Nathaniel, Poems of Salem. Somehow I missed it at the time. But I do appreciate her thoughtful review

 

 

 

 

 

Lee Varon

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful gem!

Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2020

Night Walking with Nathaniel by Dennis Daly
(Dos Madres Press, 2014)

I always enjoy books of poetry that center around a central theme. Dennis Daly’s book of poems, Night Walking with Nathaniel, Poems of Salem, brings us deeply into the world of Salem, Massachusetts—both past and present. The Nathaniel of the title refers to Salem’s famous author, Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Daly is a master wordsmith. With apparent ease, he create a rich tapestry, often using rhymes and off-rhymes. Whether writing about the native peoples who once inhabited New England, or the disturbing period of the Salem witch trials, Daly draws a vivid picture of his native New England town.
In his poem Nanepashemet’s Fortress, Daly recounts the great native leader’s death:
“New moon, you give/A people no light, they/ Flee before ravage,”
and later speaking of the leader’s demise at the hands of another tribe:
…your fortress/ Impregnable / As a cumulus/Cloud

Daly’s wry humor comes through in poems like Puritan Motel which:
“Offers a sanctuary of bed-crabs, / Broken televisions and obscene verbs”

and later:
“…their prayers/ Of private lust and secret fang/Flowering from them like mildew, or flung/ To the dog-morning when breath brakes on a dime,”

Salem’s history includes the infamous Salem witch trials which Daly deftly touches on in the poem, Lead Mills, that refers to another New England blight—lead paint contamination.
“Does place suck into itself contagion/Enough for all generations to come? /Do we in our time inherit deeds misdone”

Daly is a master at alliterative language, in a shipwreck depicted in The Can Do In Salem Sound:
“Green water engulfs the boat’s bow, / The given grace of God gathers force/Into the carve of gale; the bellow/From blizzard’s blunt maw…”

Perhaps my favorite poem in this wonderful collection is All Soul’s Day: Town House Square in which Daly recollects visiting Woolworth’s Five and Dime with his grandmother as a child. Daly gives us a scintillating memory of the store where “big-hatted women” and children searching for some treasure, walk through aisles that seem to go on forever.
When I put down Night Walking with Nathaniel, the imagery and music of this marvelous book stayed with me.

 

 

Review of Born With by Michael Daley

The art of narrative indirection requires not only a studied callousness, but also an abundance of fervor and a willingness to change course on a dime. Many of Michael Daley’s poems initially spit mulled anger and resentment through and out of his earthy stanzas before metamorphosizing into the most hopefully dressed, delicate winged lyrics (or vise versa). Daley manages this by strategically interrupting his story-line or ending it abruptly, then dwelling on the word power that got him to that point. For more of my review of Born With go here: http://dougholder.blogspot.com/2020_08_30_archive.html

My Poem Memorious-You Published

My poem Memorious -You has just been published in Lyrical Somerville of The Somerville Times. The poem is part of a book length sequence of rondels I am preparing for publication. Here is the link:  http://www.thesomervilletimes.com/archives/101441

Review of High Tide by Ed Meek

Holding court in his realm by the sea, Ed Meek mines the details from every corner of his kingdom for poetic nuggets that teach and transform. The raw materials include mushrooms and ethnic sensibilities, a mythological crossing guard, family memories, meatballs pertaining to human nature, and barbarian children. Meek is a veritable Everyman (in the medieval, morality play sense). His upwardly mobile progress, as he negotiates around or through annoying obstacles, is toward goodness and evolution’s steady continuity.

 Nor does Meek avoid intellectual confrontation. He seems to welcome it. In Meek’s world understanding must precede judgment. But judge he certainly does. Even time bends to his moral percipience as he retrospectively determines when and where childhood happiness reaches its pinnacle. For more of my review of High Tide go here: http://dougholder.blogspot.com/2020/05/high-tide-by-ed-meek.html

My Poem Personal Politics Published

My poem, Personal Politics, has just been published. Thank you to the editor, Brooke Clark. Here is the direct link: https://assesofparnassus.tumblr.com/post/614748124414640128/personal-politics

My Poem Great Reckonings Published

My poem Great Reckonings has just been published by Molecule, a wonderfully pithy magazine. Thank you to the editors, M.P. Carver and Kevin Carey. Here is the link to the issue:  Molecule

My Poem Falling Acorns and Morbidity Published

My poem Falling Acorns and Morbidity has just been published by The Asses of Parnassus. Much thanks to the editor, Brooke Clarke. Here is the direct link: https://assesofparnassus.tumblr.com/post/612393257802104832/falling-acorns-and-morbidity
Here is the journal's general link:  https://assesofparnassus.tumblr.com/

My Poem Street Cleaner Published

My poem Street Cleaner has just been published by The Asses of Parnassus. Much thanks to the editor of this unusual publication, Brooke Clark. Here is the specific link: https://assesofparnassus.tumblr.com/post/611129065688252416/street-cleaner
Here is the general link to the site: https://assesofparnassus.tumblr.com/

Review of XXX Poems by Raquel Balboni

Raquel Balboni butters her readers with luscious phrases and salted cream stanzas in her first book entitled XXX Poems. She churns her verses with naked abandon in an avant-garde display of unabashed kisses ingrained with unabashed cravings. For more of my review of XXX Poems go here: http://dougholder.blogspot.com/2020/02/xxx-poems-by-raquel-balboni.html

Review of Child Ward of the Commonwealth by Eileen Cleary

Poignant to the point of defining poignancy, Eileen Cleary’s first book of poems, Child Ward of the Commonwealth, shakes the soul with her truth-telling narratives of childhood trauma and disfunction. Cleary somehow melds a mature poetic sensibility with a child’s wide-eyed ability to see the world’s wreckage with wonder and awe. Her persona relates adventures of fairy-tale-like brutality, not unlike fables from the Brothers Grimm. However, Cleary’s anecdotes are not mythologized; they are direct and very personal. For more of my review of Child Ward of the Commonwealth go here: 
http://dougholder.blogspot.com/2020/02/child-ward-of-state-by-eileen-cleary.html

Review of Spreading Like Wild Flowers by Timothy Gager

Well-titled and well-introduced, Timothy Gager’s new poetry collection, Spreading Wild Flowers, both celebrates and broods on everyday life and the persistence of a medieval-generated, but contemporary version, of a morally centered Everyman. Gager’s wiry verses come at you from all directions, each bloom well-rooted and well protected against predatory aesthetes and lackadaisical flower pickers. Lushness seems beside the point to this poet. Themes of hardscrabble continuity and day-to-day endurance drive these poems. for more of my review of Spreading like Wild Flowers go here: http://dougholder.blogspot.com/2020/01/spreading-like-wild-flowers-by-timothy.html

Poetry Reading on January 5 in Plymouth MA

I will be reading my poetry In The Art of Words/ Mike Amado Memorial Poetry Series in Plymouth  at The Plymouth Public Library, 132 South Street, Plymouth MA on Sunday January 5. The program begins at 1 p.m.with a music feature, followed by two poetry features, and finally an open mic. The other poetry feature is a very fine poet indeed -- Eileen Cleary.

Poetry Reading in Amesbury November 26th

I will be reading my poetry at the Amesbury Public Library, located at 149 Main Street, Amesbury, MA. on Tuesday, November 26, 2019 at 6:00 p.m.

Review of That Swing by X.J. Kennedy

X.J. Kennedy knows what he’s doing. Into his ninth decade he is one of a handful of poetry grandmasters who revived the ongoing formalist tradition of rhyme and meter, giving it new life and introducing original beats and jazzy tones. His countermeasures against the status quo not only presented an alternative to the undisciplined brand of free verse popular at the time, but rejected its mirror image, the old, tired, formalist drivel being foisted by academia onto that unsuspecting generation of long-suffering students.   

 Much of Kennedy’s verse is light and funny, but not that light, and not that funny. He has serious things to say and significant points to make. His accessible, colloquial language and breezy wit disguise much.  Kennedy’s new book entitled That Swing promises a lot and delivers with a slew of good poems and a couple of great ones. For more of my review of That Swing go here:  http://dougholder.blogspot.com/2019/11/that-swing-poems-2008-2016-by-xj-kennedy.html