Opus in Chromatic Words

From Jim Ahearn’s Introduction in Opus in Chromatic Words: If you like jazz, poetic expression, travel, and memoir, you need to look no further than Edward Van Slambrouck’s new book of poems cleverly titled Opus in Chromatic Words. How appropriate is his choice of title words: Opus (a creative work) and Chromatic (a word of color and music). These words are characteristic of his endeavors and his life as sung in his poetry. His poetry joins those elements with a quick sense of humor. Walk through the door of any one of his poems and you may end up tickling your funny bone and doing a little dance. Ed’s love for his family, his friendships during youth and adulthood, his school memories, his children and grandchildren, his beloved wife, Diane, and his trips to Alaska, Mexico and other world venues are all lit with poetic light in this book. He and his wife stay on Florida’s west coast during winter, thus the sun of the southland appears in warm words in some poems. Beyond that, Ed’s ever-present saxophone permeates a life celebrated in word-images, framed with music and poetry. I suggest you take a trip through Opus. From Margo LaGattuta’s Introduction in Heart Music published in 2008: With his musician’s ear, Van Slambrouck brings us echoes of those diaphanous feelings that exist even in the silences between the words. Poetry is the perfect form for his thoughts because it combines sound and image in a way that is as close to song as one can get, while still using language. OnSpring: A Family of Poems, Mr. Van Slambrouck’s first book was published in 2005. Peter Meinke, a noted national poet, commented the following: ..”.thanks for sending me your touching chapbook, Onspring, whose pages are heartfelt, moving, linguistically admirable and playful.”