The Message: Poems to Read the World
by Jay Ramsay ,Karen Eberhardt Shelton ,Karen Eberhardt Shelton

Buy this book at amazon.com, amazon.co.uk $12.95, £7.99

“What if you stop imploring
and no one notices you have gone
And trees march toward the desert one by one?”

So asks Karen at the end of her poem “Where your you? How could you?” And I think it sums up well, the challenge on us all, paricularly from a Druidic perspective, to actually put our beliefs into action. These poems reflect a collaborative effort between Jay, from England (whose links with OBOD go back to its roots) and Karen from America. Both speak from the heart and call us into being.

They affirm what its beautiful - often, particularly in Karen’s case, by challenging that which threatens or undermines the balance and beauty of our fragile world: as in “The real killers”, “ They want oil beneath the tundra, but care nothing for the caribou walking above.” whilst Jay's evocative and moving “After Rumi” sequence provides pointers to the beyond, as for example in this one from “After Rumi 11”, which I’m sure will strike a chord with the Bard in each of us: “If you haven’t learnt to praise and dance, The whole of your inner being stays closed like a door - And you might as well have learned nothing at all.”

That’s not to say every poem in this collection found its mark with me straight off - and one or two remain obscure to me (although that might be a more of a reflection on the reviewer than the poems). One or two of Karen’s poems prompted me to wonder whether she might have a generic dislike of men - such as “The Real Killers” or “The Whale’s Lament” - until I re-read the wonderfully redemptive “Making Amends”, about a US serviceman returning to Vietnam.

It is rare for me to read and enjoy a book of poetry from cover to cover, as I did with this volume. It sustained me, both in terms of feeding my soul and carrying me through. Karen’s “A big Bang for the Money” puts it well: “When I read poetry, An aching column of desire Rises in me and meets, With everything the world is How I love everything they offer, as though I were sand And they kept pouring liquid, Into my yearning pores.”

It is certainly a book worth revisiting, for it throws fresh light and reveals new facets with each visitation; which makes it good value too.In seeking to acknowledge the truth, this book manages to transform tragedy by treanscending the mundane or horrific. Thus, in his monumental poem “La maison do Dieu”, sparked by the events of September 11th. Jay concludes with the line:

“ And what it spells is GRAIL among the ruins.”

Ovates may unconsciously have a wry smile on their faces at this point! If ever a vision of hope was needed in trying times, then this is it.

Review by JJ