Don Gutteridge

The Way It Was - Poems by Don Gutteridge

Don Gutteridge's poems, it seems to me, are masterfully crafted; the deftness of diction, the preciseness of the images, and the overall metaphorical structure vivify an emotional and spiritual reality which is not only the core of our history but is at the centre of our lives. Gutteridge, seeking to understand how the spirit of the past impinges on the present, merges past and present so that, as Joseph Conrad put it, he arouses "that latent feeling of fellowship with all creation . . . the dead to living, the living to the unborn." Literary critics will have much to say about Gutteridge's uniquely Canadian vision. I am content that his poetry is accessible, unobtrusive, delights the ear, stirs the heart and even enters into the soul. It is the art that mirrors inner life. R. G. Moyles, The University of Alberta In The Journal of Canadian Poetry.