Review by Jon Wilkins of "There Is (Still) Love Here" by Dean Atta

Words make such a 
difference,
they have to be in the right
order
of course and need to make
sense,
but when they do simplistic
beauty
is here before us as true
art
shows itself to a wondering
world.
Dean Atta a brave and courageous
writer
wears his heart on his
sleeve,
as he constructs a world of
love
and lost love, of family ties
broken
and strained as love tries to
win 
the day. Lovers are lost as the 
lonely 
world of covid swirls about us 
distancing 
him from those he
adored,
tearing him away from the 
loves
of his life at home and
abroad. 
You can almost 
taste
his grandmother's food as the 
aroma
pervades the page,
filling
your world with Cypriot
jewels
teasing taste buds and
nostrils
with words and perfect
images.
His Greek heritage teased and 
tormented
by matters so far from his
control.
His heart strained by the relentless 
pressure 
of a modern world that tries to 
press 
upon him their own limited
version 
of life and what love should be. 
Thankfully 
Atta resists this unwholesome
pressure
and tells us, in words so
beautiful,
what his own world 
is
and why his path is the true
path
and why his love can never be 
broken
despite what our world will
say.
We learn how to deal with
death
and division, of loss and
remorse
as loved ones leave us 
And loved ones 
join 
us in relationships
new.
Black Pride enhanced with
remembered 
kisses that taste of
Marmite
and toothpaste and coffee and boyish
love.
To see two black boys in
paradise
is to see how love
should
be and how it will always
be
if we only give his
love
a chance to show its worth and
shine.
A beautiful set of poems describing
life
today and how hard it can be to 
follow 
your own desirable path to
happiness.

About the reviewer

Jon Wilkins is 66. He is married to the gorgeous Annie with two wonderful sons. He was a teacher for twenty years, a Waterstones bookseller and coached women’s basketball for over thirty years before taking up writing seriously. Nowadays he takes notes for students with Special Needs at Leicester University. He has had a work commissioned by the UK Arts Council and several pieces published traditionally as well as on-line. He has had poems in magazines and anthologies, art galleries, studios, museums and at Huddersfield Railway Station. He loves writing poetry. For his MA, he wrote a crime novel, Utrecht Snow. He followed it up with Utrecht Rain, and is now writing a third part. He is currently writing a crime series, Poppy Knows Best, set at the end of the Great War and into the early 1920s.