Canadian Poetry; Wet Ink Books; Canada; Canadian Literature; publishing; www.WetInkBooks.com; Devour; Devour: Art & Lit Canada; Find all of our mags; “Devour” and “The Ambassador” –www.issuu.com/richardgrove1/stacks/bc11ecdd1e7646c4b1fac2bb7aef11ef
 

 

Don Gutteridge

 

 
Canadian Poetry; Hidden Brook Press; Canada; Canadian Literature; publishing; www.hiddenbrookpress.com; Devour; Devour: Art & Lit Canada; Find all of our mags; “Devour” and “The Ambassador” –www.issuu.com/richardgrove1/stacks/bc11ecdd1e7646c4b1fac2bb7aef11ef
 

 

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Spanning decades and countless collections, Gutteridge’s poems are as raw and heart touching as ever, delving into old memories, life, death, love, loss, and longing. Teeming with awe and sensation, these poems delve into memories of yesterday long-gone, moving skillfully from life to death, happiness to grief, boyhood lust to loss, and aging to resurrection. This is a poignant celebration of the pain and pleasure of being alive. Readers seeking contemplative poems executed with style and verve will find themselves besotted.    

BookView Reviews

 

A wide-eyed awareness runs throughout, uplifting life’s everyday moments into something weighty and transcendent in the introspective latest from Gutteridge.  Gutteridge trains his eye on the retreating shoreline of a life: “I sit at ease in my rocker/ 84 years young, / still able to breathe/ in my old bones, listening/ to Peter, Paul and Mary/ sing the songs of the long-/ago Sixties.” The poems are varied in their subjects, exploring old memories, small moments of joy life offer on a daily basis, boyhood lust and passion, friendships and family bonds, grief, longing, love among others vigor and liveliness. Over the course of the collection, Gutteridge moves from his childhood in Point Edward to his present days, reflecting on both the happiness and pain life offers. Old friends, acquaintances, siblings, parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, all of them make an appearance. A reflection on life, death, and memories that is at once intimate and sweeping.     

The Prairies Book Reviews

 

Poet Don Gutteridge adds even more depth and detail to his poetic memoir oeuvre with A Fine-Tuned Heart and Other Poems, a collection of tender reverie in verse. Relying as ever on nostalgia and memory to fuel his poetry, Gutteridge summons visions of the past with grace and humor, as though he is spinning a yarn over the dinner table. Within this storytelling, though, there are moments of confession and desire expressed in beautiful verse: I’d like to write a poem / that plumbed something too / hectic to be healed. A blend of youthful country musing and tall tales from the city, this poetry speaks of another time, but captures timeless ideas that will still echo in readers today. Moments of change on the cusp of manhood, trauma that could lead to deep emotional cracks, and sweet slivers of hopeful memory jostle next to one another on these pages, a chaos reflected in the uncertainty of growing up. Overall, despite some minor issues, Gutteridge’s delicate, witty, and profound pen must be commended once again.                 

Editor, SPR Reviews

 

 
Canadian Poetry; Wet Ink Books; Canada; Canadian Literature; publishing; www.WetInkBooks.com; Devour; Devour: Art & Lit Canada; Find all of our mags; “Devour” and “The Ambassador” –www.issuu.com/richardgrove1/stacks/bc11ecdd1e7646c4b1fac2bb7aef11ef