ONE KISS. JUST ONE KISS - Tecno-Libro

The very title of Edward V. Bonner s first volume of poetry, One Kiss (ingram, 2015), suggests some ways in which the poems inside balance the universal with the particular. Most of the poems examine the themes of beauty and risk, pleasure and danger, in the context of one of three kinds of relationships: to romantic partners, to the spiritual world, and to the world of nature. But while these concerns are shared by much of humanity, Bonner s poems sound consistently personal. in a few cases- A City Boy, Cedar Lane, and Panther Creek -this effect is due partly to Bonner s tributes to the Pittsburgh area, where he grew up. But far more often, this effect arises from his use of specific, powerful images as well as rhyme and repetition. These features of his verse enhance the exposition, and sometimes the resolution, of the tensions experienced by the poems speakers. The imagery in One Kiss ranges from the earthly to the ethereal. Highly specific, often bodily details characterize the poems descriptions o