Doug Van Gundy

[b: A Life Above Water|1978379|A Life Above Water|Doug Van Gundy|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1355053019s/1978379.jpg|1981750] is a beautiful collection of natural poems divided into three parts. Each part corresponds with a part of life itself - the time before birth, the living, and finally the slowing down that ends in our own demise. The connections are less overt than they are a subtle feeling among the poems itself. There's a cyclical nature to it all that creates a perfect sense of satisfaction at the end of the reading, a beautiful form of acceptance and self-reflection that the best poetry can bring. This definitely is the best kind of poetry.

I loved the feelings and imagery this book created, the strength in the silences and use of lacunae in some of the poems. I loved the focus upon nature and the feeling of West Virginia in the verse itself. Having spent so much of my childhood in the Blue Ridge Mountains, I felt a kinship to the poetry, as I did in many of the other WV poet collections I recently read. Perhaps I liked this one as much as I did for its focus upon the water? It brought me back to catching crawdads in streams, or fishing on the Chesapeake Bay.

This is a beautiful collection, and I greatly hope to read more of [a: Doug Van Gundy|898699|Doug Van Gundy|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1215412558p2/898699.jpg]'s poetry soon. He has such a great, calming pace.… (mais)