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Dig into this delectable journey through the dark, sensual, and ravishing poetry of Frank Watson. Ruminate the searing to the sultry as you absorb this haunting lilt of burning carnality. The poems ignite rapid and surprising shifts in focus and perspective as they twist and turn your preconceptions, allowing the implications to linger in your thoughts.
Vignette verses explore the workings of love, nature, spirituality, and dreams with sprinklings of tarot symbolism and jazzy blues. Together these verses contemplate the subtle underpinnings of a soft earth.
Review:
In the Dark, Soft Earth is a poetry collection that is not one, but ten “books” unified by common themes. The poems in each book are linked to a central image (visual or metaphorical) so that each poem is part of a movement of thought. The result of this organization is that the poems build on each other in a kind of crescendo or resolution that is very satisfying for the reader.
In addition to poetry, the book is also a visual delight. The poems are often inspired by surreal art, or image are paired to suit each theme. The section featuring Tarot cards is probably the most evocative, and the poems correspond to them perfectly.
This is more than a poetry book – it melds visual art and poetry to create a complete experience.
The poems also reflect the varied influences of traditional short poetry, especially the haiku. He also leans into the imagists like Wallace Stevens and William Carlos Williams. In this, he demonstrates not only his range, but also his ability to engage each art form in a conversation that circles back to the preoccupations of nature, spirituality and interconnection. Simple and elegant, these poems belie their deeper significance. This is perhaps their greatest accomplishment, to trick the reader with their direct prosody, while delivering deep and abiding truths about the soft, dark things that tether us to this earth.
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