Avalgar and Other Poems

This collection of poems by Andrew Rice-Oxley covers a wide range of subjects and moods, serious, light-hearted and ironic. There are poems about individuals, real and imaginary, which include an ordinary yet exceptional carer (The School Caretaker), a homesick lad in a boarding school (The New Boy), a wife splitting up from her husband (Free Now), and a child of the future learning for the first time about pylons which no longer exist (Power Lines). Religious poems, which form the bulk of the book, include poems about Christmas, Lent and the Passion, pieces inspired by Christian poets George Herbert and T.S. Eliot, and poems about prayer and moral conflict with evil forces (what St Paul referred to as 'wrestling with principalities and powers'). Prominent themes are faith tackling doubt and depression, the passage of time and spiritual journeys, and grace. Although some poems are dark or tragic, light and sunshine recur throughout the volume and the dominant note is one of hope and trust.