In Rivers Applaud Forever, Raymond Filip, the craftsman and musician, showcases his spoken-word texts that perform on a silent page, as well as his "say then play" recitals on stage. This collection features free verse and end rhymes; satire and nature studies; a concrete poem and a proem; a linked sequence of narratives, and a long bird call to the uncaptured. Filip's peace process comes to terms with his birth and disfigurement in a displaced persons camp after World War II; the unspeakable abuses of growing up with domestic violence and a broken home in the riverside slums of Montréal; his adventures as part of the resistance movement that led to Lithuanian independence; the ups and downs of a mixed marriage to a Filipina; his battle with cancer; the journey of faith and global identity; and the joys of defying his age through his first love: sports.
The cheer of a river, a mouth,/ Recurrently says in one glance,/ Or a trance: enchanté./ All my springs are for you.
Raymond Filip's poems have a ferocious beauty -- the beauty of a wound in the process of healing but still giving pain. His poems are an alchemy of images, memories and expectations, pronounced beautifully, without hesitation, poems to be sung for the few or many ears that listen.
R. Murray Schafer, award winning Canadian writer and composer.