Days of Falling Flesh and Rising Moons - Steve Denehan - Blog Tour

I scanned the notes I’ve written about these poems. I find them sparse. Often confined to one word - “perfect” or sometimes two -  “so true”. This collection of poems are so full of grace and dignity. I want to say simplicity too but that doesn’t suffice. For, paradoxically,  there is a complexity within them also. Denehan seems to put his finger on the essence of what it is to be a human in this curious world we inhabit, but not in a tabloid, cliched, social media way. Rather, with piercing honesty. Reading through this wonderful collection of perceptive poetry was like thumbing through a photograph album, not of photos but of poems. Each poem is like a snapshot of emotion and observation and so many of the poems are snapshots of love. And in all my years of reading poetry and fiction I think this is the only time I have ever seen the skill of Kurt Elling referred to. This man is not merely a poet, he is a jazz lover too!

A photo can convey many things about a moment, but a poem can go deeper bringing to mind a picture of life not just visually but emotionally. The poem Ecuador or Easter Island is full of humanity and compassion.

 

'there were tears in his eyes

I think

I smiled at him

he smiled back' 

Whistling Kettles was a sustained metaphor  for the simple joy of uncontrollable laughter and not knowing what it is you are really laughing at. It’s joyous.

 

'in mid conversation it came

 I felt it bubbling, the laughter

coming to the boil slowly, quickly'

Your Old Datsun Cherry reminded me of an Irish Jack Kerouac On the Road. A poem full of love. And an observation of that consummate understanding of how it feels to witness the relentless ageing of one’s parent and that role reversal that creeps up on you.

 

'you are still my father

 but sometimes, now 

in these darkening dusks

 I have the privilege

of being yours'

And as I continued through the selection one word came to mind, astute. Here is a poet who can see the depths of something simple and bring to it, with his poet's eye, that astute and pertinent, succinct observation that almost leave you with nothing further to say on the subject so complete is his perception.

I really enjoyed Salt and Vinegar. Maybe it’s because I’m old enough to remember eating chips out of newspaper. But I love the idea that we are eating the words. 

 

'those days

going

almost gone

in those days we ate the world

I also admire the arrangement of the poems. For example the poems Crescent Moon and That Saturday Night, on adjacent pages, are linked by by the reference in the latter of the title of the former.  In a sense there is no relationship thematically  but it brings the poems together with a subtle cohesion.

I found the poem Us to be a almost chilling indictment of our phone-selfie-mad culture and that peculiar nuance of human nature that causes us to be narcissists and rubberneckers.

 

'we turn our back on beauty

hold our phones out before us

click

filter

post

wait

bask'

 

Meteor Shower offers a marvellous juxtaposition between the cosmically amazing and the domestically mundane. 

 

'and when the celestial fireworks were over

 they were replaced

 with tea and television'

 

There were other poems that offer us this wonderful paradox, Why Are We Really Here? Where there is the deeper metaphorical and existential consideration and then the mundane everyday practicality of the situation.

This poet understands children or at least he understands his own child. Blue Paint -  conveys childlike wonder and that unwavering belief in a parent so perfectly. And then reading Bouncy Castles made me realise he had a consummate understanding too of what it is to be a father.

There are several very pertinent topical poems relating to our pandemic situation. In fact because Steve is Irish and I was very much absorbed by the Pendemic initiative  (http://pendemic.ie) I checked the website to see if he contributed. He had! And that’s maybe why his name rang a bell when the opportunity to participate in this blog tour came along.

 

Poetry is very subjective. And everybody's response is so different. I found these poems to be very accessible. This collection that might appeal to people who would not consider themselves to be poetry lovers or poetry readers per se. But this beautifully crafted volume has something for everybody.  

 

My thanks to Isabelle Kenyon and Fly on the Wall Poetry for the opportunity to read this wonderful collection and to be a part of the blog tour.