It is inconceivable that this would be David Estringel’s first trip around the publishing block. His words paint pastel word pictures. Right from the start in the first poem, “life in/verse” his artistry covers the canvas with this vision “like drifts of grey ash from a burning tower, scorching across white sheets”, simply set the tone for me. As a fireman’s daughter, it was easy to transport myself to the scene of an out of control fire watching ash rain across our family car. David shakes me from that vision and whispers into my psyche, “I disturb the peace of blank pages with the moving pictures of my silent film”. Time and again, he creates visions that show me the way. In “Solace” he shares, “like wicker baskets of water, the head can’t hold thoughts”. By the second poem, I know I am in for the long haul. There is a sweet sensuality that shines through many differently descriptive works, such as, “Blue Room” that can stretch across the sheets of paper in “Tethered to a flash of smiles”, and then again in the visual of “Tangle of tongues”. “When I Think of Him, I Think of Black Coffee and Toast with Red Plumb Jam” David paints a picturesque tribute with weathered words of his stoic father. He refers to the “big iron box of important papers”. He sweeps you in with foreboding to share; “I woke up one morning to the smell of blueberry pancakes—the kind my mother used to make on special occasions or when there was bad news. I was twelve.” Look closely to discover how David recirculates for “The Spaces in Between” - the haunting vision yet adds that “recollections become moving pictures of my silent film”. I feel that David Estringel has come out of the gate with a complete command of language and emotion in this first published endeavor. Great read.