Donald Edward Kidd’s 

“The Futility of Wax” And Other Poems

 (An unquenchable desire for ‘islands on a drifting sea’)

(Published by Cyberwit.net, India, 2004, pp. 80, $15, ISBN 81-8253-020-2)

“The Futility of Wax” And Other Poems is a very distinguished production of  verse by Kidd, a highly gifted poet. The poems reveal a strong depth, sincerity and sweetness, ‘the vitality of a hot dream’:

With your hair cut short

                I can see the small mole

On the back of your neck.

                You probably don’t even know

It’s there. But I do.

                Funny how the little things

Are what we remember most.

                It’s not the size that counts.

                                   (“HAIRCUT”, p. 25 )

Kidd shows a variety of themes. “Leaking” describes that the poet is haunted by ghosts

(I am a haunted house Of ghosts and eerie creaking, p. 35). The title poem “The Futility Of Wax” has supreme lyric gift. The faultless ease of this poem devoid of any kind of pulpit pomposity is evident: 

             I tried to melt her

Like a wax figure, but

                She is made of sterner stuff;

A new space age material

                Impervious to heat and flame.

                          (“THE FUTILITY OF WAX”, p. 60)