In Doubtful Taste: New and Selected Poems

By Don Behrend

"Don Behrend's In Doubtful Taste is a playful collection of rhyming poems that skewers everything from modern courtship to self-improvement routines to the sexual advantages of an octopus-and much more. The collection includes 56 poems presented in nine short sections, each titled with a "P" word, incl

• Language: English
• Publisher: Don Behrend
• Release date: Aug 22, 2023
• ISBN: 9780646883571

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Behrend’s verse is sharp and succinct, smooth as a skipping stone, and possessed of an irresistible comic momentum … [H]e tugs the reader through memorable verses, teasing and rewarding expectations, toward final lines that do more than elicit a laugh – they cast a fresh light on familiar experience. These amusements may at times be in ‘doubtful’ taste, but they stir something rare: delight.

BookLife

"In Doubtful Taste is an entertaining poetry collection that brims with wordplay and musicality in its treatments of sympathetic subjects."

Foreword Reviews

"Even for those who aren’t regular readers of poetry, Don Behrend’s In Doubtful Taste is an excellent read. The rhyming verse ebbs and flows and the content is both insightful and rich. At its best, it’s cheeky, lyrical, and all the more vibrant when read aloud, even for an audience of one."

IndieReader

"In Doubtful Taste is a delightful counterpoint to the self-absorbed, contemplative styles often celebrated by the contemporary poetry establishment. More engaging and substantial than most light verse, this charming diversion is sure to find its own niche of followers."

BlueInk Review

First published in 2023 by Don Behrend

Copyright © 2023 Don Behrend

The moral rights of the author have been asserted

A catalogue entry for this book is available from the National Library of Australia.

ISBN: 978-0-646-88357-1

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (for example, a fair dealing for the purposes of study, research, criticism or review), no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, communicated or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. All inquiries should be made to the author.

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For Inés, Roger and Jackie

Contents

Pandemic

Dashed Hopes

Invitation

Life in Lockdown

Another Decameron

Love Online

Poems for the Present

A Modern Love Song

Security Check

Multiple Choice

Vox Populi

Memetics

Rembrandt’s Selfies

Courtship

Peacocks and Pachyderms

The Handicap Principle

The Critic

Sloths

Octopus Envy

The Aardvark and its Zygote

The Insects and I

A Lesson to Us All

Ponderings

Transubstantiation

Cosmology

Foolish Questions

The Minotaur