What I Did Not Tell You

In What I Did Not Tell You, Ken Wheatcroft-Pardue offers a series of poetic snapshots allowing readers to enter his life and lives of those close to him. Many poems are extremely personal, such as the powerful opening poem, "A Fire: Galveston, 1965," which tells of a burned man carried from his home by firemen. The scene unfolds in minute detail, its impact on the poet apparent. In other poems actions are viewed as though through the wrong end of a telescope, maintaining an emotionally necessary distance. There is bitterness; there is introspection; there is self-deprecation. There are also unexpected flashes of humor. Wheatcroft-Pardue speaks with open honesty, not avoiding the difficult truths of mental illness, abandonment, and death. He speaks bravely and convincingly, with a narrative simplicity that portrays events as vividly as Fourth of July fireworks.