Since their inception on Planet Earth, humans have had to deal with meaningless, dulling, repetitious, man-made wastes of time (dust) and sudden, frightening changes (dragons) that create both calamities and opportunities, depending on a person's abilities and wisdom. These seventy-five poems explore events involving dust and dragons as well as our very natural human reactions to them that are caused by our innocence and experience, faith and doubt, and lust and love.
Consciousness and the body cooperate with each other as well as oppose each other as they move from their union at birth through the dust and dragons of space and time to their separation at death. In the end, the body dissolves, and consciousness returns to its origins in oblivion, both perhaps having enjoyed their very brief partnership in a physical world. The body takes its place returning to the table of the elements as material for further combinations, while consciousness is reunited with absence. After all is said and done, not a bad ending for either.
Reviews from Rob Jacques's other titles:
“Poems that show us those deepest truths” –James Crews
“Beautiful testaments to poetic connection” –Deng Ming-Dao
“Rob Jacques's poems take us on a monk's journey toward discovery” –Jacques J. Rancourt
Rob Jacques
was raised in northern New England, earning degrees from both Salem State University and the University of New Hampshire. He served as an officer in the U. S. Navy during the Vietnam era, and he now lives on a rural island in Washington's Puget Sound. His poetry appears in numerous literary journals, and two collections of his poems have been published: War Poet (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2017) and Adagio for Su Tung-p'o (Fernwood Press, 2019). Strongly influenced by Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, James Merrill, and a host of ancient Chinese poets, he's one of a few American poets still working in rhyme and meter.