Richard Kydd Jr

Idiomatic Anomalies: the Dissident Passions of a Malcontent Richard Kydd Jr

As in his previous works, in Idiomatic Anomalies: The Dissident Passions of a Malcontent, street poet Richard D. Kydd, Jr. has produced a work of unusual breadth and sensitivity. As usual, his topics range widely. Politics is a common theme; in Politically-In-Reject, he shows the world as apparently at his "beck and call" through the media, then shatters that illusion with an example of censorship. His trademark cynical, almost bitter condemnation of hypocrisy is blunt in Curse of Greed, although he can make the same statement more subtly, as in A Writer's Block. His work is many-layered, and touches the reader on several levels. In the apparently playful, simplistic Furr Ball, his description of a sleeping cat's dreams, he triggers thoughts of much larger issues. One of his strengths is this ability to use a mundane, almost trivial incident to lead the reader to a much wider vision. As always, there are poems with a strong spiritual bent. Alone to Itself speaks of the silent inner voice of the soul, and Illusionary Madness and A Quiet Whisper speak of the activities of the spirit. This volume contains some of Kydd's most mature poems.