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Showing posts with label James Sale. Show all posts
Showing posts with label James Sale. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 20, 2021

The Queen of Sonnets Reviews James Sale's Poetry "HellWard"

A Review of HellWard by Theresa Rodriguez

Title: HellWard: The English Cantos Volume One

Author: James Sale

Genre: Poetry

146 pages

Independently Published

ISBN: 979-8654151919

Released June 2020

$10.02 (Paperback)

Purchase on Amazon



Reviewed by Theresa Rodriguez


I had the pleasure of listening to James Sale read each of his twelve Cantos of HellWard through his Wider Circle YouTube videos, which was a riveting experience. Then I had perhaps the even more riveting experience of reading the book, which I did in one day. The language is so compelling and the story so interesting that I could not put it down! 


HellWard is a journey of the mind and spirit whereby the author, in a series of visions, is guided by no less than the great Dante himself through various wards of hell. Within these wards he encounters an array of people from his past, as well as world leaders, philosophers, and poets.


In HellWard we find powerful, often disturbing language, at the same time raw and refined, beautiful and at times jolting in its honesty. What struck me particularly throughout the book is the way Sale uses mono-syllabic words to powerful effect: death, hell, pain, depth, weak, guts, ache, dark, gunk, blight, flesh, tears, stench, dread, blood, hiss, oozed,“clots of gore” (a wonderful image), cries, groans, filth, swill, “smelt the blood” (another wonderful image), skull, skin, bone, ice, heat, hot, bare, raw, mess, froth, “dark webs,” “hard  knots”, guilt, “black holes,” blotch, stank, bleak, slop, “greed and pride and lust,” and “sick slime.” Each of these words are like little pinpricks, jabbing the sensibilities over and over again as one reads through the text.


I was deeply affected by many passages in HellWard. These few examples impressed me particularly: 


In Canto Two, James is seeing his mother in hell:


“My hair electrified, raised up in shock;

My tongue cleaved to the roof of my mouth;

I could not speak, seemed my whole being locked,”


And in this poignant passage we read about his dysfunctional relationship with her:


“How I longed, despite it all, just to feel

She loved me, and that deeply she approved;

My whole life waiting, and hoping she will


At last say words that mean, truly, I am loved.”


In Canto 3 we have a vivid and disturbing scene of a former friend's sperm-bank babies:


“'Hi James,' he said, emotionless and waste.


'I'd knew you'd find me; knew you'd like my work.'

What work? I thought, Then heard some sullen sobs:

The walls themselves had faces in, each hurt--


Each face half-formed, deformed, and like a yob's

Made so through lack of love and fatherhood,

But each one spoke, as one collection, mob;


Each one deprived of anything called good

So each one cried and tried to finger-point,”


There is a fine alliterative passage in Canto 5:


“And Marlene's hair, once red, now growing shoots

Of flecked and flecking grey, like fine, foamed froth,”


And a beautiful passage on prayer in Canto 6:


“And I at last in the wide interval

Unfroze and found myself creating prayer.”


Dante's advice to James in Canto 7 is skillfully rendered:


“What's solid materialises here;

In mortal life cause and effect may not

Always manifest as a conjoined pair;


Delay may be profound, prolonged, such that

The superficial mock, see that as proof

No order is, or word established fiat;”


As well as is this passage:


“Where is my guide? Was that someone I dreamed?

How lonely being lonely felt.”


In Canto 9, we find another striking image:


“...we drowned

In his rich sop of words that, as I say,

Echoed in double froth, doubled rebound,”


The book is full of intensity and movement, and there is much more ready to to read and savor.


One technical aspect of Sale's writing that intrigued me is is use of imperfect rhyme. As he says in the interview which follows the Cantos: “Of course, the key is not to set oneself the misguided task of insisting on perfect rhymes, since our language is not as rich in them as Italian.” Hence we have such combinations as “breaker,” “beaker,” and “features”; “other,” “further,” and “together”; and “fish,” “crush,” and “flesh.” I have been fairly rigid in my own rhyming philosophy but reading Sale's work has inspired me to play around with a little more flexibility in my rhyming in the future.


This collection of twelve Cantos is the pinnacle of achievement by a master poet. Sale has managed to interweave a vibrant personal narrative with current topics of interest such as mass murder, Brexit, and modern poets and philosophers. It is a rich and intense reading experience. I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in Dante, classical poetry, or social commentary.


James Sale’s website is https://jamessalepoetry.webs.com


More About the Reviewer


Theresa Rodriguez is the author of three books of poetry: Jesus and Eros: Sonnets, Poems and Songs (Bardsinger Books, 2015), Longer Thoughts (Shanti Arts, 2020), and Sonnets, a collection of sixty-five sonnets (Shanti Arts, 2020). Her work has appeared in such journals as The Scarlet Leaf ReviewThe Wilderness House Literary ReviewSpindrift,Mezzo CamminThe Wombwell RainbowSerotonin, The Road Not Taken, and the Society of Classical Poets Journal. Her website is http://www.bardsinger.com, where you can view videos of her performance poetry and find information about her books. Follow Theresa on Instagram and Twitter @thesonnetqueen.


The Queen of Sonnets Reviews James Sale's Poetry "HellWard"



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Saturday, October 5, 2019

UK Poet James Sale Reviews American Poets Latest Poetry Book

Chronicles in Passing
Author: Carol Smallwood
Paperback: 102 pages
Publisher: Poetic Matrix Press, 2019
ISBN-10: 1733702539
Available on Amazon




Reviewed by James Sale

Carol Smallwood’s latest collection is full of her wonderful inquisitive and challenging response to the world. I particularly like her strong sense of form, which is evident throughout the collection, especially her use of repetition in her Villanelles, which is masterful as each lines draws out more implications and meanings for the reader. She is what might be termed a space and time poet. In other words, she is sensuously aware of her immediate topical environment, whether that be the shops or stores open nearby; or the flowers that are growing in the woods. At the same time, she has a wonderful historical imagination as she peels back the layers of history to interrogate Herodotus, Homer and even Gilgamesh; and not just people—the artifacts (for example, the Pyramids) too. 

This gives her collection its enormous range and sweep in terms of forms, times and place. Alongside all of this are her formidable powers of observation, as she notes all that is particular in what she sees. We may remember Thomas Hardy’s famous line: ‘he was a man who used to notice such things’. Well, Carol is a woman who notices such things. From the quotidian to the sublime, there is something here for everyone to resonate with.

 MORE ABOUT THE REVIEWER

James Sale has had over 40 books published. His poems have appeared in many UK magazines as well as the United States media. He was the winner of The Society of Classical Poets Poetry prize for 2017, and winner of their Prose prize for 2018. Learn more at:
https://www.amazon.com/James-Sale/e/B0034OVZ5I

UK Poet James Sale Reviews American Poets Latest Poetry Book

UK Poet James Sale Reviews American Poets Latest Poetry Book


MORE ABOUT THE BLOGGER, THIS BLOG, AND ITS BENEFITS FOR WRITERS

 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Of particular interest to readers of this blog is her most recent How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically (http://bit.ly/GreatBkReviews ) that covers 325 jam-packed pages covering everything from Amazon Vine to writing reviews for profit and promotion. Reviewers will have a special interest in the chapter on how to make reviewing pay, either as way to market their own books or as a career path--ethically!

This blog is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.



Note: Participating authors and their publishers may request the social sharing image by Carolyn Wilhelm at no charge.  Please contact the designer at:  cwilhelm (at) thewiseowlfactory (dot) com. Provide the name of the book being reviewed and--if an image or headshot of the author --isn't already part of the badge, include it as an attachment. Wilhelm will send you the badge to use in your own Internet marketing. Give Wilhelm the link to this post, too.

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