The Conscience of Trees

Perceptive, cultivated and inventive are terms that aptly apply to Zoltán Böszörményi's The Conscience of Trees. This remarkable volume of poetry is a transport for the reader, a journey across our planet filtered through the sieve of the poet's imagination: "I speak of this need with which I live / while the wispy sunrise silently / pours a new dream through the sieve." Complexity and variety course through the erudite arteries of this book. Poems flow effortlessly from the personal to the universal, then back again with the ease characteristic of a mature poet. As one expects from such sophistication, the blending of the two is often seamless: "Time's white canvas is fluttering above me, / and in the neighboring room / the radio keeps blaring ... " and "I"m taking a walk along the Arno; / the facades of Florentine houses are reflected in the water, / like a collage of photographs / they bend in the softly ru ed mirror, / paying no attention to me. The river keeps crawling." Böszörményi's imagination is an active culture that produces some exceptional poetry. I invite you to enjoy the journey.(Mary O'Donnell)