The ninth collection of the work of poet and critic Tony Curtis comprising almost 50 diverse poems reflecting both sympathy and wit when dealing with humanity and the world of nature.

Nawfed casgliad o farddoniaeth y bardd a'r beirniad Tony Curtis yn cynnwys bron i 50 cerdd amrywiol yn adlewyrchu cydymdeimlad a ffraethineb wrth ddelio â'r ddynoliaeth ac â byd natur.

John Fowles once wrote, ‘we all write poems; it is simply that poets are the ones who write them in words’. The universality of experience and emotion that to which Fowles refers seems instantly applicable to Heaven’s Gate, the latest collection of poems from Tony Curtis. The collection is an eclectic mix of topic and style, with no apparent overarching theme. From the title poem, a meditation on the deaths of the Hale Bopp cultists, to ‘The Doctors Wiess on First Avenue’, with its now poignant reference to the ‘twin slabs of the World Trade Center’, the collection appears to reflect the author’s own wide-ranging interests and experience. The poems also shift comfortably between a variety of locations, evoking with equal intensity the old rectory at Pwllcrochan, the baroque church of Margherita di Savoia and the devastating California forest fires.

What does unite this diverse series is the clarity of the voice of Tony Curtis. Throughout the poems he mixes the commonplace with the extremity of human life. This juxtaposition serves not only to contextualize the individual events he describes but also to throw them into relief, heightening by turns the tragic, touching or even ludicrous elements that affect and inspire him. This aspect of his work is powerfully exemplified by ‘Icarus’, a poem reflecting on the final moments of a stowaway aboard a 747 jet who is thrown to his death from the airplane’s wheel bay. The final verse of the poem describes his anonymous descent through the eyes of a service station waitress, ‘tapping in two coffees and a Danish / at the till’, and unsure of what she has witnessed, ‘a bird, or an engine, / or a man and then nothing / but blue sky again’.

This collection reflects the powerful voice of an accomplished poet who uses his highly personal vision to great effect; touching and challenging his readership. It is in these terms that the Fowles quotation is most applicable to Curtis. As he uses his poetry to express his own views, experiences and feelings, he is also encouraging readers to appreciate the poetry in their own lives.

Petra Newman

It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgment should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council.

Gellir defnyddio'r adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar www.gwales.com, trwy ganiatâd Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru.