A Madness of Blue Obsidian

<p>In this dazzling and impressive collection Sheets writes wonder beauty mystery and awe onto what feels like a new contemporariness. Throughout the book the poet exists as both seeker and what is sought as he examines deeply the esoteric practices that color his lens practices such as alchemy occultism and Hermeticism notably observed from a perspective of what could only be considered a dynamic poetics of being pulsating with a linguistic tone and spirited vocabulary that serve to recall the aesthetic power of surrealism and modernism. Poems ice over and ignite in equal measure as the poet transforms image into sanctity. His declarations often imbued with the radiant gems of a poet's personal myth-making are equally universal in their urgency as when he writes: </p><p><br></p><p>We have </p><p>only this much </p><p>in common: </p><p><br></p><p>we come </p><p>then become </p><p>keepers of things. </p><p><br></p><p>You set fire </p><p>to a wreck of dire roses </p><p>and flicker </p><p>like an ever-burning lamp </p><p>fueled by the charm </p><p>of a deeper system. </p><p><br></p><p>This book renders a gift of fresh memory. It renews at every one of its sections the beginning of a mythologically charged human experience. If poetry has the force to activate a shift of consciousness or mystical experience then Sheets who settled effortlessly into the mantle of modern mystic in The Hour Wasp continues to prove with this book that he is a true poetic force.</p>