Past Wildflowers

Edward L. Edmonds is a professor of education at the University of
Prince Edward Island and honorary chief of the Mi’kmaq of Prince
Edward Island.

Ron Charach, psychiatrist and poet, knows what makes the human heart
tick. In this collection of poems, some of which have been previously
published, he evokes moods ranging from fear in “Little Boy with Hands
Up,” to poignancy in “Last Night in Srebrenica,” to domestic
tenderness in “The Garden of My Wife,” to pungency in “Photo,”
to savage irony in “Further Notes on the Bernardo Case.” Charach’s
poetic style is conversational, and he has a gift for the well-turned
phrase—as in “sand-smoothed Arabic” and “caffeinated eyes.”
Often he is oblique, leaving readers to draw their own conclusions. The
cover photo (taken by the author) is suitably emblematic of the poems.