'The emotions you so beautifully express in the poems will be appreciated by everyone who has suffered bereavement of a loved one. I feel grateful to you for deciding to publish them.' AB
' ..(we) are delighted with the book .. and the almost unbearably poignant and luminous poems. I will treasure my copy '. PI
' I think you are a true poet. I mean you are able to (carve?) into the depths and subtleties of human nature. Although filled with sadness, your latest poems are also a solace to many people as they mirror themselves in feelings they cannot equally translate into words. I was particularly touched by 'The Dangling Man'.' EF (Italy)
'I have been reading it this morning. The poems are very moving'. JM
'The first part was entertaining, often touching, always a delight . The wit and elegant use of words shines through. By the second part the passion, despair, emptiness, grief strike home most eloquently. For me, at least, they were at first reading, overwhelming and some of them I still cannot read without an incipient tear. It is a moving and apt memorial.' LR
' .. some of them are so poignant e.g. 'The Dangling Man'. You have such a wonderful way with words, it is almost like drawing a picture.' AL
'Congratulations on the publication of 'After October' .. including the sensational 'Dangling Man'. MM
'Have much enjoyed your very moving and beautifully written poems in 'After October.' AM
' I just had to write to express my gratitude and appreciation for the privilege of sharing your beautiful and tender poems I couldn't stop reading.' TP
'Dipping here and there convinces me that there is something authentic - even to the point of painfulness - in your poems. Apart from anything else, writing them must have been cathartic and something of that beginning of ease penetrates here and there. Any way more please ..' BW
' your poems wonderful and very beautiful I cried buckets over Part 2 poems which had enormous resonance for me in their acute sense of loss and bereavement, which I do understand Your poems reminded me of the love and sharing, the closeness and interdependence and physical passion and oneness I have had to learn to live without . They are lovely vignettes of all that .. But the poems after Thea's death are excruciatingly heart-breaking . Their messages of loss and humanity are so real and raw - I weep for you, for myself, and the pain and blistering agony it is to be bereft and alone and so heart-sick that each day becomes a trial of endurance and blackness and determination.' AMB
'Thomas Hardy did it. Douglas Dunn did it. Now you have done it. I can't begin to tell you how affected I have been by your poems: so beautifully, feelingly written. By the time I came to 'Chaos Theory' I was most emotionally involved and found that poem very, very difficult to cope with. It was some time before I could 'turn the page' as it were and focus on 'Dahlia Days'. When I did, I not only marveled (again) at your gift of poetry, but also at your skill in placement. It is THE poem to end your 'journey' with The final verse is simply magnificent, combining such a complex of emotions within a general framework of gratitude shot through with quiet pain. What a superb climax! What a superb collection! .. such a powerful memorial.' PH
' congratulations on 'After October'. I read it at one sitting, which did the individual poems less than justice, but which developed a great swell of emotion. After our recent experiences .. I could identify so readily with your poems. Now I am returning to them in more measured fashion - starting with 'The Dangling Man' which made an especially profound effect on first reading. . 'After October' is a magnificent tribute to Thea, and to you, and for your love for each other. .and there are many others who will, like me, be grateful that you got it published.' MF
'These are fine and moving poems, written by a craftsman with sensitive poetic skills. The styles range from open meditations on his memories to carefully wrought rhyming stanzas on life as a whole. He maintains a tight grip on reality, never venturing into quirkiness or obscurity, with occasional touches of wordplay The poems give a moving account of a poet's journey from shared living to the death of his beloved wife. Twenty one poems trace his experience of her life and death. The journey towards reconciliation appears in the next section. The poem 'Fire Sale - Everything Must Go' opens a last group marking the turning point In this poem the visionary experience of two bodies being consumed in flames reminds me of the Buddha's Fire Sermon as well as modern realities. In the last poem, dahlias in a neglected garden remind him that we 'Go well/Sometimes extraordinarily well/For a while.' These clear, moving, restrained poems invite a wide readership among readers with experience of loss and separation .. . CH
'One of the things I have learnt through many years of working with bereaved people is that each case is as unique as the person grieving. It follows that the moving, sometimes beautiful poetry which James Burch has written since the death of his wife, Thea, will not necessarily evoke an emphatic and empathic Yes! From other bereaved people. But in these poems, with an incredibly light touch, (he) is able to express raw, dark emotion, and I guess that every now and then a phrase or a thought or a feeling will leap from the page for someone who will understand and be comported by it. . What strikes me most about the poems in 'After October' both those often intimate, sometimes surprising, which he wrote before Thea's death, and those written after it, is their refreshing honesty. (he) is not afraid to 'tell it how it is'. The poems are never sentimental, but frequently tender. They give us a picture of a relationship that is real and very close, a love and friendship that means everything to the one left bereft. These are poems that grow on me, that I am drawn to read again and again. They are sad but not morbid or depressing. Perhaps partly because my most painful bereavement came after the loss of a young son, my own favourite is 'Abbeygayle'. It is one of the longer poems, describing the cemetery, the funeral, the wake, visits to Thea's grave and the effect on him of a child's headstone. 'After October is the work of a deceptively simple poet writing from his heart.' AD
' ..I found that I could not put it down until I'd read virtually all of them. Apart from being moved to tears at times it really was an affirmation of marriage and that special love that develops in a long term relationship and the inevitable sadness at the loss of one's 'other' half. Grief comes in many guises and you've conveyed this in your poetry. I found them to be touchingly moving and somehow helpful too. . Although there is much sadness and regret .. there is also a hint of all the joy you must have shared over the years .' DW
'Thanks .. a beautiful book . I will recommend it.' PA
' . The book is being read most evenings, and enjoyed very much. We endeavour to understand the sentiments behind your words. Indeed they are the words we would like to write ourselves if we were to lose our partner and had the courage and ability to do it. Congratulations on your achievement and may you write much more so that many more people will enjoy reading these wonderful poems.' AP
'I love the fun, affection and cleverness of some of the poems in the first part, 'Before'. The poems in the second part are painful in their grief and horror. The sense of dislocation, or even more, amputation is clear, courageous and honourably achieved. The love, loyalty and truth of these poems provides an astonishing memorial. I am reminded of In Memorium. Of Auden. Of Dylan Thomas. As we clutch at what goes. Thank you for writing them.' JN
' a very feeling and eloquent memorial to what was so clearly a very happy marriage.' RC
'Let us know when your next book is published, I have read 'After October' right the way through once and some of the poems more often. It stirs a mixture of emotions in me, I could feel your anguish, love and happiness '. JO
'Your poems wonderfully capture the sad, at time angry, feelings one experiences in bereavement, especially so in 'Tired in the Bone'
. (which) spoke so clearly to me of the shock of my youngest brother's sudden death.
.. many other lines have brought back this traumatic experience.
..the shock of one's loved one's departure is completely overwhelming. But you have not let it remain so and your creative powers have flourished. Your poems allow the reader to share what was truly a love relationship; gradually to build up a picture of you and Thea living life to the full. I find it hard to write about the collection as a whole - each poem needs attention in its own right, and I have kept pages of responses to each one. The saddest for me were 'The House of the Dead' and 'Everything Must Go', the truly humorous 'Tested to Destruction' and 'Nothing Purrsonal', and I liked the almost Haiku quality of some final lines.
Sometimes about yourself, sometimes entirely Thea, sometimes Universal/philosophical; such generous sharing.
.. I feel these poems contain expressions of your 'whole being' (see Martin Buber) and I and many others will thank you. My favourite is 'Abbeygayle'. MR
'The poems are all of a very high standard and some are very good indeed. It almost seems invidious to pick out individual ones, but I find I still can't trust myself to read 'Was You' aloud without weeping over the last three lines. And I particularly like the rather grim humour of 'Advantages'. 'Poor at Maths' is a very cleverly expressed speculation shared, I am sure by many people, and the last bit by many a widow and widower. You do short poems very well too; 'And a Happy New Year' is most effective . . Thank you for expressing so poignantly the feelings that so many people experience at some time in their lives and have to learn to live with.' AB
' 'After October' is by my bed and I read it often. It is 'painful' but amazingly sensitive and clear.' DW
'A wonderful walk through a personal and poignant relationship. Thank you for the experience'. M
'I would like to tell you how wonderful are the poems in 'After October'. I read the book from cover to cover, as they say, without stopping. I received a phone call in the early hours of Oct 2nd to tell me that my Dad had died very suddenly in his sleep. In Oct '96 .. my brother . Was killed in an accident so you can see why your title caught my eye. . As you express so well, nothing prepares us for our own individual bereavements. Your poetry has however brought (Thea) alive and painted a very honest picture of your life together. I was sitting with tears streaming down my face by the time I'd finished reading the collection. I am very glad that I bought your book and I shall treasure it and dip into it many times I'm sure.' DC
' . I settled down to read it from cover to cover. I have just finished doing so and I do think it is a considerable achievement. It is deeply moving, true and also had, to coin a phrase, poetic drive. It pulls you on. The only thing I didn't like about the book is the title, which sounds as if the work might be a study of the later career of Lenin. I would like to see it called something like Love Poems or perhaps Love and Loss or Poems of Love and Loss. For that is what it is about and you have explored both of these universal and yet inescapably personal emotions with great power and profundity and an unobtrusive but not unwelcome(when the intensity gets unbearable) vein of sly humour. .. I think there are a lot of people that would buy your book and find it an immense comfort to have their feelings expressed . And also simply to cherish as admirable poetry. Congratulations.' PA
' . your imagery is sometimes quite brilliant. . put into words so many of the thoughts that careered wildly through my mind after .. died, but I couldn't express them. Thank you, it's a treasure, and there are some very special poems that I know I'll re-read many times. JS