Out of the Ashes Rose the Man

Ronald Charles Epstein is a Toronto-based freelance writer and published poet.

This is the 33rd book by poet Robert Graham Anstey, who together with
his wife runs West Coast Paradise Publishing in Vernon, British
Columbia.

The first set of poems, “Muse and Meditation,” offers familiar
observations. Anstey’s readers certainly know “Autumn” and
“Laughter.” A more personal note is introduced in the verses in
“Of Muck and Mud—Of Love and Money.” The poet expresses attachment
for his poems, calling them “[his] babies” in “I’ve Lost My
Babies,” but refuses to play the role of the creative addict in “No
Artist.” In the section titled “The Long Thin Line to Eternity,”
Anstey proclaims his Christian beliefs. He celebrates ecumenism in
“All Different But Just the Same” but places family above creed in
“The Blindness of Belief.” In “Sunday Song,” he views his soul
as “mental hands [that] were tied / the rusty shackles hung like the
arms of ... a wasted mourning Greek widow.”

“Freedom of the press belongs to those who own one.” The poem “My
Reviewer” suggests that this publisher/poet will have the last word.