Blue Angels

by Stephen Humphrey
Seraphim Editions
$17.95 Canada / $13.95 US
Trade paperback
ISBN 0-9735487-0-3

Stephen Humphrey has a unique poetic voice, somewhere between the hip of old and the cynical of the new. Drawing from Biblical sources, legends, dreams and nightmares, he has painted a poetic image of angels—the fallen, the ruined, the insecure and the forgotten. He has given them faces and names, hopes and dreams, sublime power—and then no power at all. He has made their faces things we can recognize and understand and yet, just out of reach he dangles those things we can't know or define. He hints at higher powers while humanizing his subjects and offering them up. This book of poetry shows the seamy side of angels as you've never seen it, and yet finds the time and strength along the way to paint an image of their existence as fragile—something we could destroy by our own obsessive attention.

The presentation of this edition takes chances. There are a lot of font shifts, some text constructions designed to present the words and images in a variety of styles. Some of this works nicely, and at other times the difficulty in reading the fonts steals some of the power of the words themselves. This book is entertaining on several levels and shows deep thought and insight. Four of five tombstones . . . recommended.