LOVE-ZERO by A.D. Winans (Cross- Cultural Communications Merrick, NY 2010 www.cross-culturalcommunications.com) $10. 2010.
Review by Doug Holder
I have read many collections by the veteran poet A.D. Winans over the years. His latest Love-Zero, is a change—at least for me. It is an extended love poem; a mixture of the leather hide tough guy and the lovelorn romantic.
The collection boasts beautiful Picasso-like artwork from Norman J. Olson and a foreword from Neeli Cherkovski.
Winans writes of his fleeting romance with a much younger woman as if it was an amorous boxing match:
“… Thursday night
in chilly San Francisco
you play me like a violin
you got me on the ropes baby
those eyes those eyes the
look of a boxer
a micro-second before the
the knock-out.”
Winans is not afraid to express his vulnerability—-a touching concession to the siren call of love:
“ I wanted to hold your hand
touch your heart
but unsure of your reaction
I held back
later watching you drive away
lying alone in bed
hoping sleep came as hard for you
as it did for me.”
Like all flames they burn, flicker and then die. Winans uses Jack the Ripper and the hands of the nefarious gangster Dillinger to make his pain visible:
“ you became the knife in the
hands of Jack the Ripper
in a heavy fog in a back alley
in old London-town slicing
dicing your way through the
canvas of my heart
the pearl-handled revolver
in the hands of Dillinger
that begged to be fired…”
This is a beautifully produced book, with poetry that is worthy of its covers.
Highly Recommended.
Doug Holder/Ibbetson Update
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