NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW
An independent small press poetry review
 WILLIAM P. ROBERTSON: GHOSTS OF A BROKEN HEART Infinity Publishing Co 1094 New Dehaven Street, Suite 100 West Conshohocken PA 19428-2713 USA available from the author at PO Box 293 Duke Center PA 16729 USA ISBN 0 7414 2664 1 $9.95 email the author visit the website of William P Roberston read a review of a CD by William P Roberston        Web design by  This page last updated: 11th December 2007. |
WILLIAM P. ROBERTSON: GHOSTS OF A BROKEN HEART | |
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Subitled The Collected Early Poetry of William P Robertson, I feel slightly disadvantaged in not knowing the later work of this poet. If I did, it is quite likely that I would have a different view of this early work. The text itself is held, as if in bookends, by photographs of the cover designs of his early collections. There is clever use of concrete formats in the book, with quite a few very effective shape poems — a man, a heart, a bouquet of flowers, a scorpion, a head — one, of a car, wittily causes the wheels to revolve: hy must w your n motor ruA lot of the poems are confessional or are written from the viewpoint of damaged or dysfunctional people, a murderer, a cab driver, an abused girl. Titles alone give a fair indication of content: I CAN ALWAYS HIDE MYSELF AWAY, I'D RATHER STAY HOME AND BLEED. The title poem of the collection aptly sums it all up: They levitate before me in the onyx gloom, their silhouettes stitched from renewed guilt. Their laughter is sarcastic, distant thunder.In his AUTHOR'S NOTE William P Robertson says that It was only through accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour that I was able to eclipse the darkness chronicled here.It would be interesting to revisit his work in another ten years to see how it has developed. | ||
| reviewer: John Francis Haines. |