Sentinel
Poetry by Dennis Daly
© 2016 Dennis Daly
Red Dashboard LLC Publishing
Princeton, NJ
ISBN- 13:
978-1535004541
Sofbound, No Price
Given, 107 pages
Review by Zvi A. Sesling
Previously
I did a review of a Dennis Daly book of poetry in which I stated that
he “has been there, done that…” In Custom
House Daly takes readers to ancient foreign
lands, places of the heart and love-hate relationship with the work
place.
In his
latest poetic offering, Sentinel,
Daly out does himself with mysterious poems that convince you he has
an insider's knowledge of the espionage game as played by the likes of
the CIA and NSA, maybe even the FBI and any other three letter
abbreviations you can think of. He does all this in the style of
Wallace Stevens, itself not an easy accomplishment.
The poem “Secrets”
sets the stage of the dark and dangerous with an opening line that
reminds me of the old radio program “The Shadow,” which began
with the oft quoted
“Who knows what evil lurks
in the minds of men…”
Channels that lead
nowhere, nondescript
Dead ends that greet you like
vacant smiles,
Yet there are caches of grim
jewels
Hidden somewhere. A
caution wire tripped
Sets off the venal security
Alerting them to tell-all
voices.
Silence the inevitable key
To cults that form the veiled
basis
Of earthly power. The living
runes
Chiseled onto this fantastic
world
Redolent of summer
afternoons,
The ammunition spent, flag
unfurled.
This is how some reach
their bitter end.
They sieve out quiet
confidences
To spidery contenders,
misspend
The rest on red win and
circuses.
Is this a
childhood action movie, perhaps a serial? Could it be 007 in action?
Jason Bourne on the loose? What it is not is a dream, and Daly lets
you know that not all spies can keep their secrets, and often
spending on drinks and pleasures leads to their demise.
In “Patterns”
Daly deals another dark and mysterious poem for the reader to try and
interpret:
The wave and
the trough, the unmade man
Takes his turn
in the froth-fingered air,
The usual
briskness of elsewhere.
Then back
again, at least that’s the plan
Of sensible
pretense, not reckless.
Not at all.
Closing the hatch on sturm
And drang, he
nods to all, reaffirms
Solidity and
anxiousness
And doubt that
public certainty births.
He rehearses
the routine. Danger,
So predicable,
looms. He’ll wager
Life and limb.
His stubborn will unearths.
Fangs and feral
claws. The wait not long
As he prepared
for the frantic day
When fractal
stress and those patterns may,
Seen from afar,
go wrong, very wrong.
The man of duty
performs his task, he is, perhaps, too close to see the impending
results while his superiors, his handlers can see the coming end, the
losses he will suffer, maybe even his life.
If you are not convinced of the darkness or the espionage, sink into “Agents of
Influence” which incorporates some of the best thriller writing
into Daly’s bag of poetics. All of pure noir.
One by one the
rocks are chiseled out,
Disassembled, a
quick erasure
Of foundation.
The shake of structure
Noticeable. As
mildews of doubt
Climb
tapestries, traitors praise new gods,
The future
guards of our guided wills.
Frescoes peel,
plaster crumbles, fulfills
years of
prediction, multiple frauds.
Steeples,
dwarfed now, but still extend up
Toward the
unresistant stratosphere.
Demagogues
assign fault. The frontier
Forts
abandoned, rabble envelope
Our cities,
poison our sweetest wells.
Men escape
through the mountain passes
Or freeze where
they fall. The blown bridges
Mapped months
ago. Devolution sells.
You may
not find this the easiest book of poetry to read. Perhaps you will
read a number of these poems two or three times and possibly reach a
different conclusion each time. But one thing is for sure, Sentinel
is well worth the effort because your mind will compare it to
thriller novels, movies, television shows. In the end you will
simply marvel at Dennis Daly’s ability to incorporate espionage
into a poetic form-- leaving you wanting more dark shadows and
mysterious meanings. You will be pondering long after you have finished reading a poem or
the book. Highly recommended.
______________________________________
Zvi A. Sesling
Reviewer for Boston
Small Press and Poetry Scene
Author, Fire Tongue (Cervena
Barva, 2016)
Across Stones of Bad
Dreams (Cervena Barva, 2011)
King of the Jungle
(Ibbetson Press, 2010)
Editor, Muddy
River Poetry Review
Publisher, Muddy
River Books
Editor,
Bagel Bards Anthologies 7& 8
