NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW

This 2007 publication is a 'revised' edition of 2001, not apparently a straight reprint, but, which one must assume, apparently retaining original basic content or direction of poetry based on 'In Memoriam Richard Peterson, 1939-1997' in the first edition.

Although a factual memo might have given the poems the basis from which they develop, it is probably not needed since the poetry of the loss is sufficiently poignant to engage an imaginative reader without knowing facts. Thus 'your name is hidden in dry leaves' (GOLD) and 'your stone set low under oaks' together with the autumnal description of the graveyard in sympathetic terms makes it personal without final revelation.

This is the kind of collection which gains in value for the reader through being a collection on a single theme, and not a mish-mash of poetry assembled arbitrarily under the title of a single poem. It has value obviously both to author and reader, although just a slim volume in traditional style work. Physical loss and grief is changed to a gain in insight by the reader.

I recommend its purchase.