Between the River and the Stars

"Between the River and the Stars," by Tony Maude, is wonderful book of poems from a troubadour, a traveller, who has spent a life-time "on the road," and never for a second lost the urge to explore and observe the natural world in all its magnificence, from the smallest flower to the meaning of life. Dr. Peter Bennett - Hanover University - captures the essence of Tony Maude and this book when he writes that: "Tony Maude's poems are the expressions of a travelling man, of a man who spends much time on the earthly roads of Ireland, Britain and mainland Europe but also on the unearthly roads of the imagination. The voice is that of a sensitive observer, antennae tuned to catch the unusual, the unexpected, the magic in the people and places he encounters. He has a spontaneous feeling for natural things (a hill, a river, a season) and for natural people (an elderly lady or a small child). Indeed, the poetry often speaks with the whimsical, honest spirit of the child and, in doing so, shoots out sparks that have the power to re-ignite the same untrammeled spirit in the reader; or in the listener, for these poems really take off when spoken aloud and even more so when performed. As he himself declares in "Occupation," Tony Maude is also a singer, a musician and an actor: other selves whose presence can be felt. The poems express no impatience to reach the destination, no urgency to achieve a goal. Showing an openness to the gifts of the moment, they spring from the journey itself and celebrate the fleeting, the not-to-be-possessed."