When I read a poetry collection, I will often flitter from page to page, until I have touched on enough for a moment, then come back to the book at a later time, to read another few poems, and repeat that until I have read all of the poems I wish to read there, which, unless the poems I’ve read were not of interest to me, will be the whole of the collection.
If the poems are light and fluffy, with little needed in the way of deeper thought, I can easily gobble down the entire book in one sitting. This poetry collection by Poet David Ritter, is certainly not one of those light and fluffy books to be gobbled down quickly.
Instead, this poetry collection ‘Bottled Memories’ is a harrowing thing, a book full of thoughts, realisations, memories mainly unwanted, of a man who has certainly lived a life. If one is to write a poetry collection about personal things that have happened, they most certainly have lived a life, to be able to pen something worth reading. And on reading this collection, I knew I was reading the words of a person whose life had been well and truly lived.
Good things, but so many more bad things, happened in this poet’s life, and he brings to the reader a poetic and narrative tale of a life lived, not well, but very badly. From the very beginning, there are the perils of living with an addiction to alcohol, with many of the bad things this might bring to the life of one suffering from the effects of this addiction.
Loneliness, friendlessness, addiction, booze, drugs, offending, jail, they are all there. But this narrative has a happier ending than the lives of others so afflicted might have. Ultimately, this is a poetry collection that speaks of finding the one friend this man needed, the one who invited him into his life, and saved him from himself.
I am not a religious person, but I can see that the friend who came into David Ritter’s life, was the friend David needed. Jesus was that friend, and though I am not a close friend to Jesus, I can see much worth in the life of Jesus, and if having a close relationship with Jesus helps in a person’s life, I say, well done both to Jesus and to the person who has asked for and received Jesus’s loving help.
David Ritter is unashamedly a writer of rhyming poetry, and there is nothing wrong with that. His poems are full of details of a life of sordid doings, to begin with, and then much more beautiful material, as his new life with Jesus brings hope into a life he’d thought was without hope. The final poem is an outright call to the reader to let the light of God shine into every person’s life, and I can see the worth of that light, that shines a light to inspire and bring better things to all in the world.
I found much of interest in this poetry collection, giving, as it does, a candid look into a life I have not travelled myself, but can see the truth of what is written in poetry, through the words written by the one who was living that life himself. I thank the poet for trusting me to share this book with me, and I wish David Ritter well in his life, always.
If these ideas are of interest to you at all, I very much comment this work of poetry, and say well done David, I hope Jesus continues to bring much of worth to your life.
This book ‘Bottled Memories’ is available from David Ritter’s website, here https://rittersrhymeandreason.org/contact/
Carolyn Cordon - Creative 