Or do we live from pulse to pulse,
Persisting in synaptic blips
That blend as in a motor's hum
That tickles on the fingertips?
Walter Donway is a genuinely new poet for our time. His poetry deals with contemporary events, conflicts, and aspirations: 9/11, Tienanmen Square, envy of success, prophets false and true. But it does so using all the resources of the enduring poetic forms: meter, rhyme, epic storytelling, drama, satire, and song. These are attributes that made poetry beloved through the ages, a once-powerful voice in philosophy, drama, storytelling, and cultural criticism.
If poetry today has lost its popular appeal, it is because of trends such as free verse, obscurity, and rejection of rhyme and song—in short, rejection of popular values in poetry. Here, in the poetry of Walter Donway, is the counter-revolution. He rejects obscurity without sacrificing depth. He rejects free verse without sacrificing richness of rhythm.Here is a poet who is persistently philosophical, but, again, with clarity and direct relevance to human values. He begins his stirring tribute to philosopher Ayn Rand with a credo that might apply, as well, to his poetry:
Philosophy saves us one mind a time,Or not at all, and only by our choice.
Walter Donway is a professional writer and editor. He founded and edited the quarterly journal Cerebrum: The Dana Forum on Brain Science under the editorial eagle eye of legendary language maven, William Safire. He is a trustee of the Atlas Society, a nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C., devoted to the philosophy of Ayn Rand.
His work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Commonweal, Iowa Review, The New Individualist, Cosmopolitan, Medical World News, Newsday, and Occasional Review, to name but a few. He is a contributor to Poet's House in New York City and a member of the Southampton Poets' Workshop. He divides his time between Greenwich Village in New York City and East Hampton on Long Island.
