Gypsy Guitar

David McFadden has set for himself, in this sequence of one hundred poems, a task both breathtaking in its scope and stunning in its accomplishment. By echoing with his gypsy guitar the troubadour tradition of the Languedoc, the great sonnet sequences of Petrarch and Shakespeare, the redefinitions of beauty and truth of the romantics, and the distractions and fragments of the post-moderns, he has created a celebration of the beloved in which recognition, intelligence and wit illuminate each sentimental, awkward, humorous, everyday moment. The elements of romance and betrayal in these poems shine through the darkness of their passion with a lucid, conscious attentiveness seldom seen since the great renaissance poets.