Bob MacKenzie’s poems are field recordings of souls lost in this bleak landscape. The poet is an observer walking alongside his subjects as they seek light to dispel the shadows. Though stories in this collection may seem dark and unrelenting, MacKenzie always lets his reader know that after the shadows comes light.
REVIEW
FOOTSTEPS IN THE GARDEN
New and selected poetry by
Bob MacKenzie
Welcome, one and all, to Mr Mackenzie’s garden.
Take a footstep (or four) into its domain. What do you see? Gardens neatly attended, sparkling in the sun? Plots hidden, overgrown, demanding attention? After the experience of decades of writing and performing poetry, Mr MacKenzie’s garden is all that. “The shadows walk among us”, he warns us, “stories dark and unrelenting” he adds. Footsteps in the garden? The first steps into a journey into Mr MacKenzie’s mind (call me, Bob; it’s easier). Is there a cause for this dis-ease? Maybe in his poem entitled “Footsteps in the garden”, we might find a clue?
“when birds go silent,
chipmunks and squirrels
rush to the underbrush,
the wind whispers soft
then goes dead quiet
leaving only a vacuum
I can feel them come,
the silent footsteps
along the forest path
echoing my own steps
until I stop and turn
and there is nobody
on the path behind me
there is nobody at all”
Until
“at home I lock the gate,
cross the garden quickly,
go in and lock the door,
breathe a sigh of relief–
but in the silence I hear
footsteps in the garden”
What think you?
Leslie Bush
© 10 October 2021
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