J Richard Wrigley

Honeycomb & Diamonds J Richard Wrigley

'These poems display subtle craft and pay homage to the gift of life. They're tough and honest at times (try "Free-Thinker") and wryly self-alert to contradictions in the way we accept cruelty ("Mites"). They debunk "mystic Eastern stuff" at the same time as they celebrate its inherent value and appeal. Wrigley's care for giving others their due is evident in such poems as "Ward Orderly", on the care and protection of fellow beings. Universally understood griefs, angers, and joys inhabit individual poems that take readers through appreciatively observed cultures and finely reported lands, to an overarching sense of gratitude for the opportunity to experience them. Tenderness and pragmatism are present in this work of maturity and vision by a most thoughtful traveller. I highly recommend it.' - Michael Sharkey

'Wrigley treats his subject matter with a kind of gentle reverence by holding his gaze steady. This is a poetry where the choice of the right word leads you in to an accuracy that opens. It is never earnest because whether Wrigley is honing in on the natural world, family members, road rage, Buddhism, his first encounter with a dead body or a mouse in a homemade trap there is always a curiosity and an acknowledgement of complexity. Sensory detail and alliterative language successfully merged with sense immerses you in this poetry of calm contemplation.' - Claire Gaskin