Thoughts on New Connections by Lex Morton – January 29th 2023
First impressions of this book were encouraging. It is well presented and professional. I loved the relaxing green colour. It invites further exploration and intrigues with a mysterious background pattern. The back cover gives brief information about Lex Morton whose name suggested a man. I was corrected by the text and a photograph which surprised me – a teenage girl! But the intensity and quality of writing in the lines within are consistent with the mind of a woman. In order to attempt contact with the mind of this woman, I need to refer to a great love in Detroit 1966. In Secret Summer, I called him Ahmed. Apart from being drop-dead gorgeous, he was my intellectual superior – particularly in literature. He called me Booby. On one occasion he leaned over and whispered into my ear – “License my roving hands, and let them go, Behind, before, above, between, below. O my America, my new found land.” As with some of the poems of Lex, I received these rather obtuse, erotic words in puzzled silence, assumed it was a quotation and waited for elucidation. ‘Like that, Booby? Like poetry?’ ‘Is that what it was? Oh! Well … I’ve never really understood poems; they don’t seem to touch me. Did you write it?’ Ahmed threw back his head and let rip a loud guffaw. He seized me and forcefully inflicted kisses, interspersed with insults. ‘Oh! My sweet, stupid, ignorant Booby! You need education real bad. Those words are 400 years old! It’s the timeless work of an eminent English poet – my poet – John Donne. Hey, listen up – poems are profound – they live forever.’ I felt locked out of his intellectual level. I tried to explain. It’s not easy. I have issues with poems because they seem so personal and exclusive to the writer. However, I have been asked to compose a review of New Connections and therefore must make an attempt to connect. How well I succeed, is for the reader to judge. I suspect that I’m locked out due to an inability to approach poetic work in the proper way. Poetry is not prose. It’s not supposed to make sense in the usual way. I’m expected to feel the emotions. Lex has done her job. It is now my responsibility to examine my own response to her words. I found empathy in You and I – page 8, but was concerned for her on page 9. I agreed with her on page 10. On page 11, I loved the first line – ‘More than friends, less than lovers.’ It spoke directly to me as did the next poem Fake Love. Peaceful Killer on page 15 was quite beautiful with clever images of sunset and a crashing ocean. Lex and I parted company with Romans 8:18 on page 18. Whatever she was trying to say was obscured by my personal hostility to religion and the biblical gobbledygook which is often used by the pious to confuse and brainwash their victims. I do hope Lex finds her ‘good days coming’ within more mainstream secular philosophy. My partner Terry and I have read out some of these poems. We talked about them. In parts, we were intrigued with the depth of her text and feel that the Morton family can be very proud of this first effort. In conclusion, I do feel that the poems of Lex Morton have succeeded in helping me learn something about myself by holding up a mirror to my thoughts and emotions. I’m most grateful for the opportunity to have explored New Connections. Narvel Annable New Connections - A Collection of Poems by Lex Morton is available from Amazon Comments are closed.
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