Customer Reviews

Carillon : Poems, Essays, and Philosophy of Richard Rose

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Richard Rose is a complex human being who knows something that few people know. In this collection of short works (poems, essays and stories) he weaves an intriguing pattern of philosophy, conviction and experience that resonates within me. I was inspired by much of his poetry (e.g. "The Mirror" on p. 91 is particularly haunting and speaks of a profound experience of the Absolute), but the part of the book I found most interesting was part III, a more freehand set of writings on many different topics that really spoke to me. His collection of aphorisms at the end are penetrating to anyone paying attention. I find myself wondering more about this person and his life. Who is he? Why are these topics important to him? How does he know?

I recommend you check out this book, and let Richard Rose speak to you of what he knows.

This is spiritual poetry. The kind that you swear you can almost taste the spiritual revelation that inspired the author.

My review:

I've had to read books of poetry for class at school and it was painful at times, they were so bad.

Rose's poems are real. They are good. And his essays are like coming home to common sense.

I definitely recommend this book, especially to philosophic-minded people.

I had a Philistine's appreciation of poetry when I met Richard Rose more than twenty year ago. My mind preferred the logical side of life ("Nothing but the facts, Ma'am" Rose once quipped, quoting the detective on Dragnet, to tease me). I had always devoured books voraciously, preferring an eclectic mix of fiction, psychology, biography and, especially, autobiography -- perhaps trying to grasp a view of my own nature through the introvert's way of finding a mirror in his fellow man, that is indirectly, since people in the flesh are overwhelming to a true introvert. So, of all the books in the world, which one do you think I'd take with me if I were being exiled to a bookless Alba and could take just one book with me? You guessed it -- this small book containing mostly poetry. Why? Because Carillon rings my bell. Not the tinkly silver bells in my head but the big, brass gong. It rattles the drum in my solar plexus and vibrates my heart strings almost past the point of tolerance. Examples? I am the subject of "A Worm Beneath a Highway:" I was an earthworm yesterday, / And all my life I'd lived in clay / And did aspisre the light.... // I weep and laugh at the perception of life's time in "At Twenty-One:" ... Man knows not when he lives or if he lives. / There is no science nor an art that gives / A measurement of time. Man lives but one / Blind moment. I am old today, -- the sun / Reads only noon, yet still I know that dawn / Will come no more, -- it too is here. And drawn / To race in life's foul course I see the goal / Ahead, and all is present in my soul. // I pick up Love's message in "A Part of Thee:" Though you should seek me, or still never know / Me, I am with thee.... //

And there's more. For example, the prophecy of "The Book of Omen," the metaphorical progress of the seeker in "The Books of the Relative," the poetic summation of "The Way" in two pages of pure inspiration for the fortunate reader, and the perspective of the Absolute manifesting in the relative dimension described in "The Mirror." There's advice on honing the only tools we have to work with in the one-page "Intuition and Reason;" the arresting short story, based on a trip to Niagara Falls, told in "Tales of Love," maxims and aphorisms on The Nature of Man, The Great Compromise, Time, Doubt, Money and the Truth, Marriage, Trust, Discrimination, Commitment, Success, Detachment, and so much more. If you're looking for an antidote to life in "Flatland" and to the seemingly endless rationalization, procrastination and desire for distraction that plague our lives and keep us mired in tangential activity, this book will open your inner listening to the music of the spheres.

This poet fathered me, yet I never have completely understood him. I respect his poetic genius, though oftentimes his works were bred from a very tormented place, trapped between Earth and Hell. Sadly, this brilliant man now resides in a nursing home. He suffers from the ravages of Alzheimer's disease. He will never know the impact he has had through these works penned by his hand.