Boston Dialect: Volume Two is a positively gluttonous feast of over a hundred freestyle poems that I had been hungrily looking forward to since I read Boston Dialect: Volume One. It is a rare treat to find so much by a living poet presented together, but Paul Tait is a very prolific writer who allows his imagination free rein over almost every subject under the sun. These poems reflect yet more aspects of the poet’s “real life”, because he is creative musically too – composer, pianist, singer - and as haunted as we all are by birth, death, and the search for love. The very last poem, Unfinished Music, says it all: “Unfinished music fills my book, work unwritten distracts my look, timeless wanders to the orchid of love I go”.

To quote the title of one of Paul Tait’s own songs, “I didn’t quit I surrendered” when I opened a copy of Boston Dialect: Volume Two. Nothing else existed for me; I was captivated until I reached the end and, of course, I have my favourites. There are poems to fascinate every reader, but these called to an echo in my mind and heart. The Mystery of Me, Train to the Heart of Tomorrow, Boston Weather, Mozart on the Grand, and the heartfelt FedEx Traffic Log. Some are long and some no more than four or five lines – they all make you stop, think, and feel. In Boston Dialect: Volume Two, Paul Tate has given us a book with worldwide appeal that whets the appetite for more.

Boston Dialect: Volume Two by Paul Tait is the second compilation of poetry intended to inspire and spark buried emotions that dwell inside the heart. From loss and love, anger and resentment to mourning a loss through death, these words are meant to make the reader feel and can even allow the heart to permit its break to heal. It is important that poetry speaks volumes and pulls the heart strings that allow emotions to be expressed in a meaningful and healthy way. Boston Dialect can do that very thing with the various subjects and fundamental topics that are compiled within these pages.

I loved Boston Dialect: Volume Two by Paul Tait because he is not afraid to touch on cliched ideas and deliver them in a new way through poetry that makes an ordinary subject come to life in verse. The way Tait pulls his verses together in a well thought out and heartfelt way makes for a wonderful book of poetry even for someone who does not typically read poems. The poetry in Boston Dialect can make the heart sing to an unheard tune; it can make you feel like laughing, crying, falling in and out of love as well as making your heart break for the loss of the dearest love in your life. I recommend Boston Dialect by Paul Tait for anyone, for any occasion, because this book of poetry really does contain something for everyone to enjoy. This book is truly a five star collection written by a five star poet!

In Boston Dialect, Volume Two, Paul Tait gives us poems written with a sureness in tone and voice. He draws a line between free verse and occasional rhyming and does it well. There is nothing cute about his messages to the world. He speaks with resignation at times, as all good poets do, but there is something for just about everyone and imagery galore. Some recurring themes include God, the sky, and loves, both past and perhaps present, Christmas, and his mother’s death. As with any good poetry, these poems resonate best and most agreeably when read out loud. None is so long as to lose our attention. Only separated by their titles, Tait’s poems form a narrative or a series of journal entries, and that is certainly not a bad thing, feeding, as it does, our willingness to keep reading.

I loved the flow of the poems and, in particular, their readability. Paul Tait’s Boston Dialect, Volume Two has poems for every taste or choice of theme. They range from Your Love is a Salve, where one’s love is described as “soothing, moving mountains, changing currents to gold”, and “Grounded Sun”, a lament for the passing of summer: “She lied: She didn’t stay forever Death was her lover…” In Sweet, we hear a plea to “Dress in sex…Oh honey…Use it all Use it well”. Tait shows us his love of words and his natural poetic skill. His observations on everyday concerns or personal history are not so much unique but more in the ways they are expressed, urging us to listen, whether we understand their intended messages or interpret them within the framework of our own experiences. Tait’s poetry connects with us readers, and that’s what makes it triumphant.

Boston Dialect, Volume Two is a collection of poetic verses created by author Paul Tait. This second collection continues from the first to chronicle a series of poems which were originally penned in a collected stream of consciousness style without any titles or real separation of thoughts. For this collection, half of those works have been titled and given some navigational ease for the reader, though the poems are still in the intended reading order to recapture that train of thought feel. The works uncover an emotional spectrum of inspiration and thought processes as we follow the connecting – and sometimes disconnecting – ideas that enter the poet’s mind.

Knowing Paul Tait’s continuous style in advance makes Boston Dialect, Volume Two a really interesting read on another level to most poetic works. With around fifty poems to choose from, there is sure to be something in each individual work which will touch the heart and/or mind of its reader, but for me as a writer I found it fascinating to unpick the connections which take you from one expression to another. For example, when Christmas arrives in the writer’s life, the expressions become more emotional and the backdrop is much darker and colder during the descriptive imagery of the works. There is also a strong theme of loss, troubled relationships and struggling which I found powerful and moving. Overall, I’d certainly recommend Boston Dialect, Volume Two for poetry fans as Paul Tait is a very talented and emotive creator of verse.