Arcadia One Mile Book

In this upbeat, wildly original collection, Dannie Abse's forays into language know no bounds. With masterful ease, an uncompromising wit and a flawless ear, Abse moves from the celestial to the ordinary. The poet enumerates bawdy escapades in "The Boasts of Hywel ab Owain Gwynedd"; praises in "Deaf Men Singing" those who "hallow the coarse endeavour, attend / the awkward, the not winging, the also-rans; / cheer Z because it's last..."; and provides, in the especially amusing "Why Angels Disappeared", wonderfully imaginative explanations: ...wanton Azazel, the angel of Vice, unhooked his masterpiece wings, displayed, enticed daft angels to swig double-strength nectar, deft angels to juggle the fruits of Paradise. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! That unquiet night (such an orgy) half the angels got laid and their pet unicorns rat riot, began to bite ... Some howled at the moon, some crapped on the ambrosia... While travelling in the United States as a young man, Abse stumbled on a road sign announcing "ARCADIA ONE MILE". Simultaneously, a funeral procession passed by. Therein lies the impetus for wedding paradisiacal whimsy with mortality's grim reminders, for urging us to Toast all that which seems to vanish like a rainbow stared at, those bright truant things that will not keep; and ignorance of the last night of our lives, its famished breathing. Then, in the red wine, taste the light. Reading these poems, our heads lean towards hope like "long-necked tulips, sinuous out of the vase", and it begins to seem plausible that After the melting eyes and devastation of Hiroshima ... butterflies, crazed, flew about, fluttering soundless things. Heart-warming and lyrical, Abse goes down like fine wine. --Martha SilanoRead More