Dave Lewis' poetry is honest and direct. Each word is effective and easily understood. Unlike so many others today, he writes from the heart and soul, from raw emotion; he has drawn on his wide ranging knowledge and experience to evolve a style, an elevated poetic diction, which eschews artifice and ornate language. To do otherwise, to court obscurity, to write for just a small coterie, would be for him to miss the mark. A true son of his native South Wales Valleys, his work moves from the local, to the national, to the international; he aspires to a universal discourse, beyond the here and now, and beyond class, or localness, or country. This excellent collection of Dave Lewis' work is highly recommended - John Evans.