Primitive Mood

This collection of poems examines the damaged lives of society's lost and marginalized using myth and fairy tale as an ironic lens. Eschewing sentiment or facile prescription, poet David Moolten's dispassionate but respectful renderings of his characters' sufferings debunk wishful indifference and reveal profiles in strength. From the plight of the urban junkie to genocide both contemporary and historical, the poems allow the truth to tell itself, in language that is both potent and efficient. The verse is exacting in its precision, but ultimately casts the light of hope on the immediate darkness.