Between the River and the Stars

"Between the River and the Stars," by Tony Maude, is wonderful book of poems from a troubadour, a traveller, who has spent a life-time "on the road," and never for a second lost the urge to explore and observe the natural world in all its magnificence, from the smallest flower to the meaning of life. Dr. Peter Bennett - Hanover University - captures the essence of Tony Maude and this book when he writes that: "Tony Maude's poems are the expressions of a travelling man, of a man who spends much time on the earthly roads of Ireland, Britain and mainland Europe but also on the unearthly roads of the imagination. The voice is that of a sensitive observer, antennae tuned to catch the unusual, the unexpected, the magic in the people and places he encounters. He has a spontaneous feeling for natural things (a hill, a river, a season) and for natural people (an elderly lady or a small child). Indeed, the poetry often speaks with the whimsical, honest spirit of the child and, in doing so, shoots out sparks that have the power to re-ignite the same untrammeled spirit in the reader
or in the listener, for these poems really take off when spoken aloud and even more so when performed. As he himself declares in "Occupation," Tony Maude is also a singer, a musician and an actor: other selves whose presence can be felt. The poems express no impatience to reach the destination, no urgency to achieve a goal. Showing an openness to the gifts of the moment, they spring from the journey itself and celebrate the fleeting, the not-to-be-possessed."