Well Versed: To Shakespeare, Poets, and the Performing Arts - paperback version

Out of Shakespeare's Dream!

"Making the heaven of heavens your dwelling-place,

You stand nearest to God. You brought to birth

The world, the heavens, and the underworld,

All bathed in music..."

With these words, poet and actor Abdiel LeRoy hails his belovèd Shakespeare and sets the stage for the Bard's characters to appear.

His lines have been spoken by famed actors in BBC broadcasts, including Kenneth Branagh, Mark Rylance, and Judi Dench; his sonnets have appeared in newspapers, literary magazines, and at New York's Lincoln Center; and his verses were commissioned for performance at London's Pentonville Prison.

"O eye of God,

Our myriad-minded Shakespeare, and our pattern

To live or die, we must be free or die

Who speak your language, stuff of muse and thunder..."

But in this collection spanning two decades, LeRoy finds room to praise other poets too, among them Auden, Blake, Dante, and Milton.

Finally, we go on a whirlwind ride through the performing arts of four continents, from dancers channelling harpies in Beijing to Tango musicians tumbling to infernal depths in Buenos Aires.

"Too small my thanks, too dim my muted cheers,

When I have heard the music of the spheres!"

Steeped in the minstrel's tradition, LeRoy weaves mystery and mayhem, magic and myth, in verses worthy of the Bard himself.

"For lovers of Shakespeare, fine writing, challenging thoughts, and a wondrous sensitive humor, these poems, and the journeys on which they take us, will become part of the psyche. Outstanding!"

San Francisco Review of Books