NEW REVIEWS of BLONDIN Collected Poems by Brian Taylor

If you have been enjoying the Blondin poems you may be interested in reading two new reviews – the first from a newcomer to the Blondin poems. The second from someone who has been reading (and re-reading) the poems since publication of the First Edition in 2006.

A first time reader review:

“I was given a copy of Brian Taylor’s poetry anthology, “Blondin”, and asked to write a review. I hesitated. Brian is a friend, neighbour, and a fellow refugee from the 60s. I’m a thick skinned ex-journalist and part-time poet myself. I’m also a confirmed atheist, so when I hear the word, “spiritual”, I reach for my pistol. Knowing Brian’s strong Buddhist faith I feared the worst, so I was pleasantly surprised when I began burrowing into his poems.

“Blondin” is a substantial collection of verse. It’s like a large box of tasty organic delicacies, which you dip in and out of at your leisure- not something to be attempted at one sitting. The poems deal with many facets of life, from glimpses of the cosmic, to the scent of the breeze on a local Cornish lane. Whatever your taste- whether it be wit, insight, or the Tao, you’ll find something to engage you.

When you lift the lid and start eating, you’ll be sure to find something to calm your bluebottle mind.”

– Anthony Ginn, England, August 2019

Review after many years of reading Blondin poems:

Blondin opens with an image of a man crossing Niagara on a tightrope – symbolising Everyman’s precarious journey through Life from birth to death.  

Blondin above Niagara,
the rope begins to sway.
The rocks below are grinning.
Every step is Judgement Day.

And the opening poem is short and enigmatic:

“The Sun shines
  in a bucket of water
  and doesn’t
  get
  wet.”

The book is made up of three collections of poems which all shine an impersonal seeing on the mundane to the extraordinary, the humour and tragedy, the light and the dark of Everyman’s life. The subject matter ranges from Oxford with its colleges, rivers and ghosts to the Far East with its monks and Buddhism.

Each poem in its own way is a pleasure to read, brightens the mind and has a wise point. No words are wasted. Each poem is different, yet all home in on the transiency of things and seeing the world from the same centre as the Poet at the time the poems were written.  Humour and catastrophe side by side, good and evil, rich and poor, the beautiful and the ugly, the livingness of the present moment and the deadness of clinging to the past or a future.  

Poetry begins with pain
(like any other kind of birth)
but though it breeds and feeds on earth,
it aims at not becoming back again
and reaches to the root of things
in search of the eternal springs.

Though Blondin ends with the same short enigmatic poem as at the beginning there is now emphasis on the something unchangeable that has been underlying all the poems. Above the poem, a grim cartoon of the moment before death – combined – they can elicit a flash of the Deathless!

“The Sun (still) shines
  in a bucket of water
  and doesn’t
  get
  wet.”

The insight in the Blondin poems of Everyman’s one step after another (one breath after the other) across the tightrope of Life – is into the Unconditioned State.  Everywhere is the contrast between the teeming multiplicity of life and the utter freedom of the Unconditioned State that runs like a crack through the Universe.

Brian Taylor’s collection of poems in Blondin is a rare work of Art and Insight. The poems entertain and sharpen awareness but also serve as a good friend and wise companion on the journey of life to Everyman. Each poem is as fresh to read again and there is joy in awakening to the Truth that the poems point to.  

– Linden Brough, England, August 2019

May the Poems and Reviews encourage you to buy a copy! Please consider leaving a review on Amazon and share the treasure with others… You can also request a REVIEW COPY via the publisher’s contact page HERE

*BLONDIN Collected Poems by Brian Taylor at amazon.com amazon.co.uk and free delivery worldwide at BookDepository

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