Touched By Its Rays, by Walter Donway

Walter Donway has a new book of poetry, Touched By Its Rays, that's just about out.

I've got a sneak-preview copy.

I'm almost done with my first quick read. There are some really lovely, striking things here, that took my breath away.

His Empire of the Earth, in driving blank verse, tells the story of an early builder of a cross-continental railroad. This comes near the end:

I mean to have my way in this fair land:
Traveling to the ocean shore on trains
That roar like Odin through the forest pines;
Dispatching swaying boxcars full of wheat
To hungry millions for their daily bread;

His shorter poems are often rhymed, like this snippet from An Ayn Rand Centennial:

The altar of our age is politics:
For heaven, power; for sanctity, the plan
To end all plans; and prayerful edicts
To fashion forth the perfect good of man.

While many of his poems are on topics of history or politics, many others are on very personal matters - such as worrying over the well-being of a son, or pondering the perils of love.

Anyway, I'm not done reading. I do feel the urge to re-read carefully, which, to my way of thinking, is always a good sign for poetry.

His verse has a fine rhythmic drive -
Pulsing as if alive.
And after their first attack
His words keep calling you back.