Dialectic Incursion

Once again, in "Dialectic Incursion," his seventh book, street poet Richard D. Kydd Jr. balances a bleak, unsparing look at the human condition and the lives of the disadvantaged, with humor, romanticism, and occasionally soaring hope. "Alexander the Ingrate" describes a character we all recognize, a hustler and con man who plays on the sympathy of friends to use them, while "Unto Thy Heart" is a positive, lyrical statement of hope that verges on the romantic. As always with Kydd's work, "Dialectic Incursion" is refreshingly sprinkled with humor. "Office Party" is a description of the pain and frustration of a visit to the dentist, yet the writer presents it in a way that causes the reader to chuckle. In the end, though, Kydd makes some harsh judgments of our society and culture. He is his most cynical when dealing with politics and big business, as in "The Beating of the Drum," a condemnation of the U.S. government, and the corporations that profited from the deaths of American soldiers in Viet Nam. While celebrating the human ability to love and grow spiritually, Kydd does not hesitate to blast the institutions and people who would stop that love and growth.