|
4 Stars ****
Using a mixture of free verse and rhyme, poet Richard Ivory expresses heartfelt emotions concerning his lady, personal fears, felt inadequacies, and empowerment stemming from this great love. Ivory’s frisky style permeates the poems making for an interesting read. Jo Ann is a lucky lady indeed to have found this almost worshipful respect in a Man.
Bob Leibold
Natural Light Productions
4 Stars ****
Dive into Exotica – a book unlike any other on your book-shelf. Each page is a brief journey into a facet of life as lived by Mr. Ivory.
Richard Ivory has written a rare book that is suffused with wit and candor about things that few of us ever deal with and even fewer figure out how to put into words. He reveals a deep love for the Lady of his life and the struggle that goes into keeping a loving relationship alive and growing. It’s a book that belongs on the nightstand of couples to read a few verses before they turn in for the night.
Exotica is a book reflective of Mr. Ivory’s life and his strug-gles. He has such sections as Angels, Insightful, Romance, Chronic Pain, Romancing JoAnn, Family and Friends and Exotica-Erotica. This is poetry that delves into the heart and soul of a Twenty-first Century Man.
This is one you won’t want to be without, so grab a copy for your bookshelf now at www.richardivory.com and enjoy!
Tonya Flinker, Editor
EDU-entertain, Inc.
4 Stars ****
Ivory fearlessly confronts himself while painstakingly extolling love’s capacity to empower in this achingly open and open-hearted anthology of work from the past 30 years. With unflinching candor, Ivory exposes his own vulnerabilities to powerful effect in “Similar and Different,” the centerpiece of this collection and an intrepid journey through the dark recesses of his soul as he struggles to find a path that leads to redemption. While more often engaged in exploring his own inner workings, Ivory nevertheless does turn his attention toward external matters, such as corporate lobbying’s corrosive impact on the two-party political system, as expressed in “One Big Party”:
I pray that the party in charge,
Will give back our rights,
That would be large.
But it is money and power,
That corrupts our one party system,
Working together to keep the status quo,
I pray for change but I just don’t know…
Let us turn back to diplomacy and not to wars,
Paid for by the taxes of the middle class and poor.
Ivory can certainly ratchet up the intensity level, but he can also be unexpectedly playful and tongue-in-cheek, as in this joyous ode to his life’s love, “JoAnn – Queen Everyday”:
Hail, Hail
For her I shall not fail.
I am her Prince Valium.
Ivory can also be wry and self-effacing in addressing the difficulty of living with chronic pain and the stress it can bring on others (“I Get Into You”):
Last night my pain was frightful,
I was far from delightful.
Please forgive my abusive words
For I was not myself as pain’s frustration set in.
Ultimately, Ivory’s writing is his catharsis, a vehicle for staring down demons and wrestling with impulses that inhibit the positive change he seeks to make manifest in his world:
Hate
I’m filled with so much rage.
Love
Fighting the way to escape my internal cage.
Chris Richardson
Pop Culture Historian
|
