Jack Random's Review of In the Dark, Soft Earth

In the Dark, Soft Earth
By Frank Watson

A REVIEW BY JACK RANDOM

From blood & bones

“I have lived a hundred lives / and will die a hundred times more”

From the title poem

“and I wait for you / in this life and the next”

I was not familiar with the poetry of Frank Watson before reading this book.  I have found it engaging, a work of revealing tenderness and endless soul searching.  It is ultimately a testament to love and survival for there are times when love and lovers fail and leave us yearning.  There is betrayal and redemption.  There is destiny and death.

As the work unfolds we begin to understand that Watson is dealing in mythologies.  He unfolds the story with sweet sensuality and poetic joy as if reveling not only in discovery and fulfillment but in heartbreak and disenchantment.

He pulls from deep within the earth, within the human soul, within the realm of ancient knowledge, within the understanding of a poet reconciling his heart and soul with the universal human experience.

This work is much more than a love story of course.  He builds his own mythology as poets sometimes do and borrows from classic mythology as well.  He calls forth the ancient forest, the wolf and the raven.  He travels the earth in search of self.  The illustrated Tarot becomes an instrument to explore a variety of themes: prophecy, the elements, loss, justice, helplessness, identity, the search for meaning and, inevitably, fate, destiny and death. But always he returns to love.  As if his lover has been waiting all along with a promise of sweet fulfillment.

In the Dark, Soft Earth is a moving work that offers lovers of poetry hours of reading pleasure and inspiration.  He employs beautiful, stunning and masterful works of art to enhance the reader’s enjoyment.
 

Jack Random (aka Ray Miller) is the author of novels, poetry, essays and short stories.  He is currently working on a series of poems.