Space Place Time By Dr David Dunn

“Space Place Time”

By Dr David Dunn

102 pages

ISBN: 978-93-90601-41-7

Cyberwit

www.cyberwit.net

Copyright 2021

 

 

Review by LB Sedlacek

 

In this new collection of poems from Dunn, there’s quite a lot of good works mostly written in free verse and some rhyming styles.  Visuals meet with each verse and the results are great. 

 

Poetry may be considered to be an oral medium, but it is a visual one as well.  The way words are used, the line spacing, the number of words on each line, spaces between verses, all of it matters to the poem.  And, all of that can have an affect on how the poem may be interpreted and even on how well the reader enjoys the poem.  Dunn is able to take advantage of all of this enhancing the impact of each poem. 

 

From the poem “Fortuna I:  The Kingmaker”:

“She didn’t speak in singularities.

Her head — a busy station, a terminus for memories;

a bakery for new ideas, dozens of tiny ovens, each

with delicacies and interesting staples; a barracks of

solid principles, life-learned skills, and barbed wire experience;

scar tissue healed over delicate, slightly perfumed skin;

vampirised; cannibalised; successful; waving a skull and

cross bones as a welcome warning flag.”

 

These poems take on interesting comparisons.  They are quite imaginative.  The images are easy to experience.  Often, each poem takes an unexpected turn.  Poetry allows the option to write how you want to, and to write about what you want to and Dunn does just that.  For instance, he might combine lines or split them up to give the poem a certain gist.

 

The variation in the subjects included in the poems is nice.  It weaves in so many different things.

 

From the poem “Fortuna IV:  Taken to the Cleaners”

“On television, the wife was rational.

Discrete foreplay, forgiven indiscretion.

Eureka, Monica!

Clit on Clinton.

Doing me thigh way.

Interning me softly.

Monica, Hillary, country matters.

The lover, the wife, my venereal funeral.

No better political suicide than inside an intern.

Impressionless pillow talk upright in the Ovum Office.

Presidential precedents: FDR and JFK.

A fiendsex reborn from its ashes.”

 

Dunn’s writing is vulnerable.  He layers image upon image and also poem after poem.  They gel together nicely in the book as a whole.  He obviously has a lot to say. 

 

My favorite poem in the collection is “Hunters’ Hibernation.”  He wrote this after Rilke, one of my favorite poets.  He captures the nuances well.  You can simply imagine sitting in those rocking chairs with the older couple and their dog. 

 

This collection of poems has much to say.  The poet is quite aware of what he’s saying.  It’s also very original as one of the poems includes a poem within a poem as a crossword puzzle.  This poet dares to take chances and has given us some very good poems to read.   

 

~LB Sedlacek is the author of the poetry collections “I’m No ROBOT,” “Words and Bones,” “Simultaneous Submissions,” “The Adventures of Stick People on Cars,” and “The Poet Next Door.”  Her first poem novel “The Blue Eyed Side” as well as her first short story collection came out last year entitled “Four Thieves of Vinegar & Other Short Stories.”  Her mystery novel “The Glass River” was nominated for the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award.  She writes poetry reviews for “The Poetry Market Ezine” www.thepoetrymarket.com  You can find out more about her at www.lbsedlacek.com