The Writer's E-Zine Home

Writers' Village University - F2K: Free Fiction Writing Course - ePress-online
Writers' Village University Membership Information

Poetics

Glennis Hobbs

E-Press Online Presents
Word Castles -- a Book of Poetry by Tom Spencer

In his earlier life, Tom worked as a millwright. Tom now applies that same precision to words, in particular his poetry and the result is his first published book, Word Castles.

From the opening poem, "Looking for a Book," Spencer gives us a tongue in cheek reason as to why he wrote the book:

In one of his poems, "Poetry Form," Spencer asks the question "What is Poetry?"

From beginning to end, Spencer answers the question through his poetry. The humour in the poems is very subtle and often understated, rather like the nuances of light in a painting. Tom is able to take a serious subject and poke fun at it as in this poem on writer's block called "Writers' Block, a Question?"

Word Castles contains 186 poems covering a wide range of topics and forms, both structured and unstructured. There are nature poems, children's poems, and observations on life from friends to love to old age. The book includes both free verse and rhyme. Physical attributes and shape of the poem are also an important part of the book. The poem "Roland the Artist," which is about a poet-artist friend, describes the way artist paints and how he captures the colours in the painting. The poem is shaped like a tree.

Tom is a keen observer of the world he lives in and often uses the daily events of his life to find ideas for poems. He often uses nature as a theme as seen in the poem "Dry Gulch Bridge":

In the poem "Blind Man's Walk," Tom uses the urban environment as a theme.

Tom tries many different kinds of poetry, but prefers to write structured forms such as sonnets, sestina, and haiku. He prefers writing English sonnets to all other forms. The poem "Golden Castles" shows Tom's skill with the sonnet.

Red shadows dance among the distant trees. The lake, silent, smooth, dark, like tempered glass. A drifting hawk, calls Taps in reverie. The evening breeze caresses meadow grass. I think of you, the wonders of our past. Our trials and tribulations starting life. Remiss soothsayers said it wouldn't last. I reflect the years you have been my wife. And as the spirits dance in yonder wood, Golden clouds, fade and hide within the sky. I review our life and everything was good. Emotion wells then tempers with a sigh. Your silhouette kneels, to pick a daffodil. I hear my song of love, from a whippoorwill.

My favourite poems were the haiku. While on the surface, haiku may seem like very simple poems, but in reality they are not. These haiku carefully written and honed to sharp perfection. I felt that they best show Tom's ability as a poet-craftsman. This is one sample haiku:

Spencer says poetry is "one part composition and ninety-nine parts reading." I have enjoyed reading the poems in Word Castles while reviewing it. This is a poetry book that I will go back and savour many times.