Songs of a Reluctant Poet

Winner of the St. Louis Wednesday's Club 2002 Annual Poetry contest for <I>Poem of a Bare Princess</I> Demian Farnworth weaves together a collection of poems that possess the tragedy warmth and lyricism of his prize-winning work.</p><p><I>Songs of a Reluctant Poet</I> delves into the psyches of:</p><p>Young wistful wrestlers who dream of the fantastic unredeemable past during weary physical matches.</p><p>Adolescent suicides amusing themselves with swimming swans songs and vodka.</p><p>A mathematician attempting to preserve himself by filling his apartment with flowers; who imagines he's the Third Horseman of the Apocalypse; who fears the turning of the leaves to autumn is an assault by a fire-breathing serpent.</p><p>The unusual--sometimes comical--thoughts and acts of these self-absorbed characters manage to undermine their tragic reality. For all the glee Demian Farnworth's lines are severe and wild: these thoughts and acts--imposed by the poet on his people--betray a judgment of an unrelenting and unreconciled sort.