It was through poet and writer Lesley Moon that I connected with Shaun Masterton. He is a Scot with two passions – poetry and American football. He publishes poems and talks about football at his blog, shaunmasterton.com. I’ve liked the poetry he publishes on his blog, and so I decided to take a look at the two books of poems he’s published, The Written Word (2006) and Imagination (2010). (He’s also published e-books on html tags and tables and web design, so that tells you what kind of work he does.)

The Written Word is a a group of selected poems written between 1997 and 2006. Many of them are about family, and his strong feelings for his family (and someone he’s in love with) and a kind of protectiveness characterize the poems, especially those from 1997 through 2001. Collectively, they are the work of a young poet who is beginning to find his way and his voice.

From 2002 onward, the poems change but many of them are still about love. “Smell of the Wild,” for example, is about a visit to a love that is more expedition than journey, and it ends in an unexpected question:

Swimming through the river
Rising above the surface
Stepping foot on the land
Running through the forest
Passing the wildlife as I go
Climbing up the tree
Stopping for a breath
Looking for a view
Picking my direction
Grabbing the vine
Swinging from tree to tree
Landing on my feet
Springting over the land
Arriving at the airport
Hitchhiking on a plae
Waiting to land
Foot touches the surface
As my legs take off again
Running through the roads
Arriving at your house
Knocking on your door
My love answers me
I ask the question
Do you like the smell of my deodorant?

For Imagination, published this year, Masterton is demonstrating a maturing in his writing. There is less about family and love (although love is still there) and more about life and experience.He’s lived more, and it shows in his poems. Consider “Darkness within me,” which has a smiliar rhythm to “Smell of the Wild” but is less a step-by-step description and more of an impressionistic approach:

Thrusting forward into the darkness
With animal like precision

Welcoming the night with open arms
Wanting it to devour me in one bite

The freedom in the night
First me like a woolen glove

Worries of my cloned life
Left behind in the light of day

Hunting for a predator in my domain
Looking to stop the burning within

Senses pick up a lonely soul
Strike down with such furious rage

Leaving behind blood and bones
The werewolf within me howls.

There is also tenderness in these poems, such as that for comforting a friend dealing with loss in “Paint a Smile,” one I paticuarly like for its realistic protrayal of comfort and its limits:

Cheek soaked sadness
Little tears tip toe down

Breathless sigh of sorrow
Heaving breaths of wonder

Misery hugs a close friend
Wrap a scarf arm around

Whisper words of comfort
Little squeeze of reassurance

Tissue away their tears
Let them know you’re there

Jester them with a bad joke
Paint a smile on friend lips

Masterton’s writing is growing and maturing, showing strength and depth. He writes “action” poems, poems that tell stories actively and purposefully – with a touch of tenderness about them as well.