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A overview glance of Richard Vallance's "Canadian Spirit Voices" published by Kedco Studios.
From the very first poem, Aztec Shawl, Richard Vallance makes clear his intentions with Canadian Spirit Voices.
The intention is to weave an incredible tapestry of poetry, literary translations, and both a fine short story and staggeringly detailed essay on the history of the Sonnet.
The second poem bayeux affirms this scheme, weaving two pronounced dialogues into a voice of solidarity. Afterwards, the poems take a distinctive styling, favoring the simile for a sort of concrete impressionism
as shown in Lasts the First Light
Cool and almost
warm as it were
as if in this wintered light
spilled
to thaw my dismal rooms both of them
like icicled drops
One can tell in this that there is a definitive lean on the visual aspects of the poem, and further on, where the weave starts for form a grander tapestry of words. The poetry itself is broken into separate colors to pronounce the concept and overall theme. Artistically and aesthetically so, this work truly shines, and although the language lacks a certain crispness at points, it certainly has no lack for originality or specificity in it’s subject matter.
In later parts of the CD, one finds him translating various works, including a group of Haiku to French, the ancient Greek of Hesiod, the Germanic of Shubert and the French Baudelaire, amongst others. Throughout all of these versatile writings, one finds the signature series of media Kedco has been renowned for. Pictures, royalty free in every CD, tie together each poem, translation, and Short Story.
Richard’s true strength lies in the Sonnets, long the staple of his musing,
This is demonstrated in such poems as Momentide, and is “Essay on the Sonnet” where he makes reference to a staggering plethora of Sonneteers, and makes reference to the likes of Shelley and Pythagorean geometry for the formal approach.
The sheer versatility, enormous devotion, and strict professionalism of Canadian Spirit Voices deserves Kudos in it’s own, making the book well worth the price. More than that, the incredible quantity of media Kedco offers for every CD accrues the worth threefold.
All CDs are 9.95, and can be ordered at the website below.
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I am profoundly grateful for and deeply honoured by your truly thoughtful and discretely literate review of my latest book, Canadian Spirit Voices. I should be only too delighted to return the favour by reviewing your contributions to the Crystal Dawn Anthology (which I believe Kedco has already sent me... I'll need to check).
There are a few typos and small errors in the review, as outlined below. These also appear in CAPS in your review.
Changes are:
1. the book's title is: Canadian Spirit Voices, not: Canadian Voices
2. my name is Richard, not Ricard.
3. Change: A fine Short Story to: a fine short story
4. In your review of "Lasts the First Light" (which I composed when only 27 years old), please change:
or specificity in it's subject
TO:
or specificity in its subject
(you used the verbal abbreviation instead of the possessive)
5. You will need to change your wording on the haiku section. I did not translate the Haiku, I wrote them myself, and then translated my own French haiku for English readers, so they could at least get a notion of what they were about. The same goes for all my French language sonnets. These are ALL my own poems. I am fully bilingual English-French, as are a lot of Canucks.
Thanks again, Tyler!
You have been so extremely helpful. I cannot express enough in words my gratitude for your careful critique of my work.
I shall attend to your poetry soon. Rather than negatively critique any of your less successful poems on AD, I shall send you private e-mail evaluations where I believe I have seen you "miss the mark", as it were. Overall, your own poetry bears the same class of originality and genius as does that of Sara Russell, Robin Ouzman Hislop, C.S. Snow, myself and a very few others I've encountered on AD. Sadly, most so-called "poets" on AD are not poets at all, as can be readily ascertained and attested by the almost mind-numbing "sameness" of their works. That is to say, one could substitute one author's name for another's with so many of the poems posted there, and one would be left with the distinct and uneasy feeling that they had all been written by the same author.... Monsieur Average.
You get my gist.
As a parting favour, I'd love to be able to LINK to your review from my AD, and even quote brief bits of it in my BLOG or BIO, if you so permit. Copyright notice will be duly supplied.
If there is anything further I can do to be of assistance to you, Tyler, in the near or not-so-near future, please advise me so.
Sincerely yours,
Your new Friend and fellow bard,
Richard Vallance,
Ottawa, Ontario,
CANADA