Arrivals

David Mason is unflinching in his keen observations. This is a great book by a very gifted poet.

I had the wonderful opportunity to hear Mason read at last summer's West Chester Poetry Conference. That night, he read "The Collector's Tale." That night, as well, he sold a book. Mason's poems are the work of a master craftsman. Equally at home in both the lyric and narrative mode, Mason writes with a poetic voice that is at once elegaic and celebratory. The poems cover such various subjects as the death of famous poets to starkly autobiographical lyrics about the poet's excursion to Australia. However, the centerpiece is "The Collector's Tale," a haunting narrative about one man's arrogance and one man's vengeance. I don't want to give it away. Buy this book and read it yourself.

Ever since I read Mason's The Country I Remember, I've been anxiously waiting for his next collection of poems, and finally it is here, _Arrivals_. While it doesn't have anything as ambitious as "The Country I Remember," it does have one of the best poems Mason has written, "New Zealand Letter," in fact the best poem he's written outside of his great narrative. This book is also loaded with many other short gems, such as "The City," and "Winter 1963" which is a great poem dealing with both the deaths of Robert Frost and Sylvia Plath. And it has one of the best things that Mason has ever written, his narrative "The Collector's Tale." This poem alone is worth buying the collection for. This is a wonderful collection of poetry.