Author Description

Anthology of poetry, edited by Jerome Brooke. Karon Beach is a collection of poems: "Karon Beach" refers to a beautiful and relatively quiet beach in Phuket, Thailand, which provides the intoxicating setting for a lively romp of a poetry anthology by a trio of established poets who span the globe. There is plenty of sunshine and blue sky here -- and, somewhere in the sand, there is apparently also Wi-Fi, for amid the exotic backdrop, these poems possess a prominent Internet presence; in fact, there is a great sense of both global and emotional connectedness that runs throughout the book. So let's take a journey! The three featured poets are Vaughan Rapatahana (Hong Kong), Niall McGrath (Ireland), and Jerome Brooke (Thailand). Each one of these poets bears a distinctive voice in his own right, but somehow, collectively, their poems meld together in a sequence that makes the collection particularly satisfying. Despite some dialectical differences (I admit to having Googled the phrase "tuk tuk" in the title poem by Rapatahana), even a bona fide New Yorker like me was able to find common ground and resonance here. In Rapatahana's spare, but substantive, poem "lines on loss" brush away these tears. they are not mine. I disown them; only borrowed for a while to reveal raging sorrow... Tears are universal, as is the heartbreaking loneliness that lies, if one reads between the lines, beneath the gaiety and frolic of these poems, perhaps buried momentarily in the hot sand. In fact, the most notable aspect of this collection as a whole is the remarkable fact that poems which emanate from distant lands can feel so familiar no matter where one resides. McGrath's work, meanwhile, depicts one who is hunted and stalked. In his poem "Outlet" Cubs queue before tents pitched as if at a jousting tournment that reek of hot nuts, sauce-drizzled crepes and candy floss while their dams loll in herds sipping Wolf Blass and nibbling paninis as the sires munch chips and steak, supping at