Once over the Shoulder

Once Over the Shoulder is Alex Bussey's second book of poetry: his first, Webs Solidly Woven, was published in 1999 by Four Seasons. The poems in this book express various aspects of human nature - love, hate, fear, sexuality, violence, vision and, above all the hunger man has to discover why he exists. Alex's impeccable use of language, unusual use of imagery and vivid display of ideas will often leave the reader shaken and emotionally drained. Readers will experience the dregs of life as well as beautiful inspirational insights. Although the book is divided into five parts, there is a single thread running throughout with varying degrees of subtlety or intensity: things happen, sometimes within our control and sometimes not. But we must come to some form of realization and deal with the situation. Some of the poems begin on a thread of despair, but end with an inspirational experience. Frequently this is instinctual as in the 'Doe', but, too, it is a coping process as in 'Sparrow' or 'Winding Down'. The search for the meaning of life reaches out and embraces the reader in both 'Forever Seeking' and 'Progression'; and how much more shocking and violent can life become than in the depiction of the Oklahoma bombing in 'Our Very Own'?