Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
It can only be hoped that the more you may know someone, the more they may surprise you, after all what is the point of the sunrise if you cannot enjoy the spectacle of the dusk and twilight that inhabits the same path.
Whilst night may fall and plunge the world into darkness, Dusk illuminates the shadows with one final kiss on the brow of the collective streets and buildings, the people’s thoughts which turn to images of lengthening shadows, the stranger by our side which has remained hidden by the pursuit of day, and whilst the shadow breathes one last time, it is to the Grandfather of American poetry that we remember that, “Every sunset brings the promise of a new dawn.”
A new dawn, or rather a continuation, a fought for sequel which stands in the same domain as the Midnight hour but is its own dominant force of nature and nurture, the keenness of expression that sees the dusk and dawn as genesis of the ideas that run through the poet’s mind, and perhaps none so keenly as Liverpool’s Davy Edge.
Following on from his first poetry release, Poems From The Midnight, Davy Edge’s light touch remains constant, a charm of expression that refuses to broken down and sent silently to its room, instead it flourishes in the voice of the reader, an ample reward for any writer when they are told they can hear the artist’s voice emanating, striding, from their own open mouth.
The Darkling Dusk And Other Poems may sound as if it is a line from a fantasy novel, where hobbits perhaps roam through forests and wizards battle for the sake of the world, however in this world of the youthful spirit and wise mature thought, it is to Davy Edge that the words push forward and announce themselves with pleasure. A smile that contains at time the type of heart that understands it is heavy, that it endures but also one that delights in its beautiful simplicity. Like Dusk, the writing is sharp when you see past the shadows that other poets sidle within, that other scribes seek to hold their anonymity.
“I Am Open…” a strange detail of accessibility and vulnerability to which the poet places his trust upon the reader, he points across the volume of words and tightly bound, but uninhibited sentences that these poems are there not to be scrutinised, but to hold as truths, no sense of hiding in the dusk, he instead playfully remarks that he is comfortable once more in the daylight, in the open air, in the crowd; and it is a beauty to be stood in the middle of that reveal.
Across poems such as At Peace, A Literary Life, In Disguise, The Bard of my Backyard, Robin and even in the twin sorrows of A Broken Heart and Alcohol, Davy Edge strikes a light against the rough passage of the sun’s downward curve and illuminates his feelings with sheer depth of character and the polish of an artist who has discovered that dusk only precedes the following day and the light to come.
A tremendous treasure, The Darkling Dusk And Other Poems is robust, beautifully paced and arguably a symbol of the artist’s own resilient care.
Ian D. Hall