Stewart Dawson
About “GEMS”
“This poem, which takes the reader far into the universe, uses the Moon…a child’s balloon…as a metaphor for loss… the underlying experience that connects us all. The poet speaks of the nightly ritual of the moon’s disappearance in a skillful use of language…adrift…awaits another rising…the way grief comes and goes. This is a finely crafted and wise poem that earns the power of its provocative last stanza.”
-Ellen Kort Poet Laureate of Wisconsin, 2000-2004
About ME
“…At first glance, Stewart may appear to be a quiet fellow, but there’s another side to his personality, visible in the little paragraphs he puts together for the (Northern Sky Theatre) playbills each summer, that belie his avowed desire to “someday become famous for my obscurity”. Inside the head that is so resourceful at creating effective sets… there is also a delightfully playful imagination that often overflows onto the printed page.”
-Patricia Lewis Williamson –author
About “THE LIBRARY”
“I love the chances taken, the fact that the story is the atmosphere; that it is poem, paean and maybe even prayer all in one. I love the metaphysics of it. It’s like fine music or abstract painting. It is what Suzanne K. Langer is talking about when she says that art is virtual feeling. Another blue ribbon.”
-Henry Timm, author
About “THE TRAIN”
“One of the things art can do is to capture the remarkable in the midst of the commonplace. In the notes I took to describe the story to myself I wrote, “Kafka in Oshkosh” and I really believe this writer verges, with a very light touch, on that strange and frightening absurdity that threatens our composure on a daily basis. This makes for a kind of subtle madness on the streets in the town where we live and this writer has captured that recurring discomfort perfectly and ironically. Wherever our character confronts this train, the sur-reality is actual and at least temporarily maddening. In this story, that condition is intensified by the mocking irony of the closing words.”
-Henry Timm
To Me
"Dear Stewart,
At the risk of further complicating your multi-layered personality, I have now read everything on your website and declare you to be a literary genius, which I suspected all along but hesitated to make public. Stop whatever it is you are presently not doing and devote yourself to writing. The choice is not yours, but posterity's.
Never mind that you might starve for a while; eat your words. I was touched by all of your stories and poems and by the unexpected twists within them, when I wasn't laughing. You astonish and delight, something I have striven to do all my life, so I know that goal but you know that way. Thanks for the inspiration."
Yours, Jim
-James Maronek (Scenic designer, artist, mentor)
Silver Poplar Studios LLC
www.silverpoplar.com
Reviews and Remarks