Reviewed by Beatriz Copello
Be Quiet About Love
by Jason Beale
Picaro Press
28pg, ISBN: 9781761094750
Be Quiet About Love by Jason Beale is a small chap book of 28 pages about love and the poet’s family and his world. Love poetry can be cloying but Beale’s love poems are interesting, well written and enriched with literary devices. Beale was an ESL teacher and visual artist. His poetry has been published in prestigious publications, like Quadrant and others.
Some of the poems bring up issues and feelings about being a father and how children illuminate and brighten our world. The boredom of domesticity is apparent in some of the poems, the daily tasks, the quotidian weighs heavy on love, like demonstrated, with a smidgeon of humour, in the following poem titled “Suburbanites”:
The slow accelerating grind
of a distant hoon, the singular drip
of a bathroom tap in the dark;the atmosphere of a Sunday night,
after the children are asleep,
is not much to write home about.
In other poems Beale recognises the importance of love for relationships to survive the daily trials and struggles. His positive attitude is apparent and inspiring. On the contrary he suffers from what many writers suffer from: “The not enough writing or reading guilt”.
In ‘moments in time’ he observes the world around him, he reflects, ponders, examines and grabs the reader with the beauty of his words.The poet describes objects, events, feelings with precision, care and appropriate words, even a little bit of history makes an appearance like in the following poem titled “Meagre Spirit” after Hadrian.
Meagre spirit
seeking refuge,body’s breath
of love and life,soon you will be
cast in regionspale as winter,
harsh and bare:nothing there to
make you laugh.
No sentimentality is encountered in Beale poems as he writes about life’s wounds and death. Be Quiet About Love demonstrates a philosophy of life that leans towards acceptance and resignation, often he expresses profound thoughts. Be Quiet About Love is a great little book to read in one sitting.
About the reviewer: Dr Beatriz Copello is an award-winning poet, she writes poetry, fiction, reviews and plays. The author’s books are: Women Souls and Shadows, Meditations At the Edge of a Dream, Under the Gums Long Shade, Forbidden Steps Under the Wisteria, A Call to the Stars translated and published in China and Taiwan, Witches Women and Words, No Salami Fairy Bread, Rambles, Renacer en Azul and Lo Irrevocable del Halcon (In Spanish). Copello’s poetry has been published in literary journals such as Southerly and Australian Women’s Book Review and in many feminist publications. The author has participated in international conferences, has taught Creative Writing at W.S.U. and other scholarly institutions, she has read her poetry at Writers Festivals and other poetry events in Australia and overseas. Copello is mentioned amongst the forty “most notable people” graduated from the University of Technology.