The Light of No Other Hour, by Joseph Massey. Pub 2023
This is my third book of poems by Massey, an independent and prolific poet. This book is self-published, and he also publishes regularly on his blog and other online places. Like most best poems, these are wonderful when read aloud, evoking the grit and chill and calm of days after storms, when the light is suddenly calm and there’s a moment of peace, even in the most urban locations. Like in his previous books, there are some real gems here, including “The Last Poem” (“It is enough…”) and “Far” (“Your silence/is as full/as anything spoken/or sung…”). “The Last Poem” might be an anthem for personal peace in difficult times.
There is also a brief note at the end seemingly about the role of the poet: “To listen, and to wait…To notice, and to go on noticing. To say so. There is no other task.”
My favourite is the untitled poem on the back cover, an afterword/afterthought, nameless and anchoring:
Something other than
fear, other
than bewilderment
blooms in the margin:
thin shoots claw
from gray-black slush, mud —
the wreck the thaw left
behind — life
unraveling life.
Fate: I’ll be keeping this one in my faves collection.
4 – published in 2022/23
22 – a book of poetry
28 – an old favourite author
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