Firstly, this is the most biased and completely unobjective review that I have ever written. Secondly, now that we have that out of the way, Daniel Priest is a genius who paints colours with his words in ways that I have never heard before. Granted, I would not have considered myself a fan of poetry because until I met Fanny the French-Canadian Fireball (Daniel's wife, nicknamed "F-Bomb"), and later Daniel, I thought that poetry was cheesy and often pretentious, not to mention terminally boring. The two of them, individually and as a team, changed my view of what great poetry is and what it could be. Daniel's book launch reading for 'Dead Man' (a.k.a. 'Dean Man' thanks to a mammothly funny Simon Goff typo) was truly inspiring. The poetry contained within is centred around Easter and is chock-full of mysterious, provocative, and even uncomfortable imagery. This is not typical "Christiany" verse and I would not consider it for the faint of heart. But it is beautiful and thought-provoking in its brilliance and range of emotion. I laughed out loud at times, yet also felt a sorrow in my heart at others. I went away feeling that this was not airy-fairy cliche-ridden bullshit, but gritty and passionate verse shot through with grace, the stuff of real life.
Daniel Priest is a talented poet with a God-given gift for articulating Christ's grace through his writing. For $6 you can pick up his book 'Dead Man' and enjoy some of the finest poetry written about the mystery and power of Easter. I look forward to reading what he comes up with next!
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I couldn't agree more--listening to both Daniel and Fanny read their work was like nothing I've ever experienced before. Who knew you could say the words 'poetry reading', 'easter', and 'good time' in the same sentence???
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