Review of Lapping Water

Lapping Water by Dan J. Flore III
Review by Julie Carpenter










There’s a whole world in this slim volume of poetry. Flore’s poetry ebbs and swells as it brings past and present together in a collection of luminous images.  The poems capture the essence of being human, having both the lucidity of concrete detail and a foundation of universal reminiscence, giving readers an odd sense that the poet might have rummaged about their heads as well as his own for inspiration. 
 
The poems flow past like water, leaving memories outlined in wet leaves and the moaning of the ocean.  The image of water is also a good metaphor for the music of the poems themselves, often spare and simple but with a depth that pulls the reader along in their wake.  Ghosts are incarnated in lines like these:
 
sometimes your wet skin touches me
when I brush against soaked leaves
I always turn around to see if maybe it really was you
and the branches disappear
 
 
From the first poem, Tap Water, to the last, Today I saw the World, Flore is adept at using beautiful imagery to cut to the heart of his memories and experiences, embodying pain in beauty, sometimes slicing before the reader becomes aware of the risk.  This short book should be read again and again, as the poems reveal more with each reading.
 

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Dan Flore's poems have appeared in many publications, including Sick Lit Magazine and Lummox. His first poetry collection, Lapping Water, is published by  GenZ Publishing. 

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