Thistle Dew is the third volume of the selected, collected poetry of James Howard Trott. The first two volumes were published as Immanence ( 1967-1988 ) and Contingency ( 1989-2001 ). Further volumes of Trott’s poetry with more specific aims are: Land, Light, Wind and Water (poetry of the plains) and Conceptions and images (pro-life poems). The poet is also editor of A Sacrifice of Praise: An Anthology of Christian Poetry in English from Caedmon to the mid-Twentieth Century (2nd ed., 2006) and author of several prose works. The Poems in Thistle Dew were written from 2002 to 2007. They fit no single genre, although random,
obscure, and oblique, are adjectives that come to mind. The subjects are from ordinary events, natural phenomena, and memories, merging in unlikely associations as in the metaphysical poetry he admires. These verses blend faith and inquiry seasoned with friendly scepticism toward commonplace assumption and the unexamined life. At the same time many of these poems are light. Beginning with the title we have questions about how seriously the poet takes himself, or how seriously he expects us to take him. Yet as we read his poems, we find one word or image bearing three or four different loads - hinting the title means more than at first appears. The poet continues prolific, and says more collections are likely, though he himself is mildly surprised at the fact. Thus whatever it means, Thistle Dew does not indicate the poet feels he is finished!