Sharp Pencil

<p>There is very much the life and death instinct coursing through the arteries and veins of the collected poems found in <em>Sharp Pencil</em>. The idea of <em>Sharp Pencil </em>is that it offers keen observations about life. It has a loose story arc that references the act of drawing. Section headings called Lines Shade and so on to Last pages place the reader within a poetic world.</p><p>Couplets jive with tercets and quatrains. Melancholy heats the memories that are revealed or confessed and a sense of loss and longing caresses the tips of its met- aphors and the warm stomach of its everyday mode of undress. At the same time <em>Sharp Pencil's </em>nostalgia for the past brightly steps us into the present and calls forth hopefulness and chants out themetres of love. These are <em>settling </em>poems refusing to let go of the five o'clock shad- ows they fall upon while drawing back the net cardinal curtains to let the new day in.</p><p><br></p><p>Sean Redmond 2021</p>