Moving effortlessly from Virginia to Italy and beyond, Ron Smith's new volume responds with a range of emotions from humour to horror and with a variety of forms from the sonnet to visually expressive organic shapes. The book's forty-three pieces gather themselves into three flights that hover above and touch down among the politics of memory and the psychology of beauty. With inspiration drawn from memoir, myth, history, fiction, and the visual arts, That Beauty in the Trees presents, ponders, and sometimes judges the actions, fates, and aesthetics of not only the author's friends and family but also legendary and historical figures, including Achilles, Catullus, George Washington, Edgar Allan Poe, H.D., Ezra Pound, and many more.
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You know when darkness seems to pourfrom the sky, driving tenseeven a mile from your own front door, two blacklanes with a centreline ohso easy to cross - flashing lights, red in those days;- THIS MOMENT
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(LSU Press, 19 April 2023, e-book, 116 pages, copy from Edelweiss)
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This is a new poet for me. I really enjoyed That Beauty in the Trees. The cover made want to read this collection and I wasn't disappointed. The poems are well written, full of powerful imagery, impressions, and ideas. The themes are relatable yet diverse. I especially liked I Always Thought I'd Die, How She Came To Be A Model and Lucky Strike. I'd recommend this.
