Guernica Editions

A vector of restless vitality flows through the works of B.W. Powe. From the early A Climate Charged (1984) to his recent These Shadows Remain, Powe's finely-tuned and poetic sensibility is an antenna for the unheard sounds and invisible waves coursing through the networks of contemporary life. He has both ear and eye to decode the electro-acoustic dramas of our global theatre... As readers of Powe will appreciate, his is an uneasy optimism, hard-won over years as a skeptic who probes obsessively into the night-lit alleys of contemporary life. While These Shadows Remain presents a vision of Blakean redemption and deep compassion for our children, the war of images against humanity still casts its shadows.

I've just finished These Shadows Remain, and am quite haunted by the book. It is, to say the least, intriguing, and its resonances are only settling in... An enigmatic, striking piece of writing, one I shall return to.

An intellectual terrorist.

Like well-chosen brush-strokes on a canvas.

An impassioned chronicler. His words seem to emanate fully formed from the cosmos... Ecstatic moments... hair-raising lines.

A thinking heart… a dancer’s agility…takes considerable, unfashionable risks.

One of our finest cultural commentators.

Subtly textured themes that affirm the importance of the romantic voice in these troubled times.