Tom Spence

Observations and Commentary: One Hundred Poems Tom Spence

This volume, Observations and Commentary, is what its title bespeaks. Everything with which we interact daily can be the source of quandary or confusion, of interest, of interrogation, or of insight. The danger, as the poet says is in "...the ritual of postponing rituals, the deception that there is still plenty of time."

After all, what finer ritual can one observe than to embrace the mystery, turn it over like a polished pebble in the hand, and wonder if the examiner is examined by his or her own question.

If this collection of poetry lives up to its title, it gives voice to unexpected trajectories as ideas carom from impacts with observations often noted ironically, or irreverently, or with occasional insights which startled even the poet. The poet should not be immune from being informed by his or her own poetry.