Love from a Broken Fire Escape

Book excerpt: In this collection of love poems, Kydd has once again captured the essential duality of the human heart, and of existence itself. The poems range from a celebration of love at first sight and the physical ecstasy of two lovers entwined as one, to the despair of having lost love, for reasons beyond control or understanding. As usual with Kydd's work there is a strong spiritual element, with the soul seeking its ultimate fulfillment. He presents the union between lovers, the mingling of two souls into one, as this fulfillment. But when love is lost suffering is intense, and Kydd also shows this unsparingly. Kydd wouldn't be himself without a healthy streak of cynicism and reality. In the poem ASK NOT he says simply: Never ask "Do you love me" if you do they don't And although his final poem, The Breath of Love, is basically positive and romantic, a few pages previous, when describing his first kiss in COW POKE, he can't resist saying: No sweeter memory in mind and heart could I fathom to this day. Yet in spite of the heightened passion of the moment a thought lingered in my mind ever afterward. .as sweet as her lips felt that wonderful day of my youth her breath smelled and tasted like sour milk.