To venture on a book whose main themes touch on pain and grief is to risk a great deal. Mere autobiography will not save us from pain, any account of it must pass through the alchemy of art and craft if it is to speak to us with the comradely voice of a fellow human being. "I rhyme", said Seamus Heaney, "to set the darkness echoing." It is an ancient and honourable duty of the poet. Kieran Beville writes poems "...to make the pain rhyme..." There is much to be gained from reading these quiet, steady reflections on the grief and joy that goes inescapably with being human. Above all, perhaps, what the poet here so amply demonstrates: pain, if we're able for it, can open the gate to acceptance and understanding of this one and only world we share.
? From the Introduction by Theo Dorgan