Poets and Poems: David Russell and “An Ever River”

The idea binding the poems of An Ever River, the new collection by British poet David Russell, is found in the title poem. In fact, it’s found in the title of the title poem. Life is a river, an ever river, flowing forever through time, containing and absorbing natural and human creation and memory. The river swallows pollution, sludge, war, monuments, and palaces, and cleanses them all.

The collection’s 26 poems address such natural phenomena as whales, earthquakes, “eco-thunderstorms,” and scorpions, and then go one to include humans’ natural phenomena, like panic, progress, dreams, mid-life, old love letters, and even cremation. The natural and the human blend together, or perhaps the human, good and bad, are extensions of the natural. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.