Though Texas poet, David Estringel, has written several collections and been widely published in magazines and anthologies, I ashamed to say I was not aware of his poetry until I had an advance view of his shortly to be published, Blind Turns in the Kitchen Sink (Anxiety Press), and I’m pleased that I did; I’ve become a fan. The poems in this fine work are his meditations on the theme of death as he wrestles with the thought of his own mortality.

The collection begins with poems that convey the transience of life and the inevitability of death. A Scene Outside the Window of a Country Church is typical. The preciousness of existence is conveyed through the beauty of the natural images: ‘Shocks of green/ flutter/ and shimmer-’, ‘dewy butterfly wings’, ‘emerald and jade’. The vibrancy of the scene outside penetrates the sanctity of the church, yet so does…