The overall impression I have of the Capuchin friars is of a homely, humble,down-to-earth religious. They don't have the superiority complex of the Jesuits, nor the historical baggage of some of the other orders.

They go about their lives as unobtrusively as possible. They no longer go round collecting alms for the brethren, nor do they walk everywhere but their lifestyle is equally humble, poor and jovial.

Maybe there is no better appellation to address Wistin Attard, the author of this book of poems than to call him 'The Capuchin poet'. For in his poems he encapsulates the Capuchin character such as I have just described it.

Do not look for lofty epics among these poems, nor for philosophical ramblings. On the contrary, the subject matter is, for instance, an old man resting near the sea, a bird in a cage, on a night of full moon, a stream in the countryside .

The words used are unpretentious, homely, everyday language. Sometimes you can get echoes, deliberate or otherwise, of Aesop i9n the way he looks at nature.

Obviously, being a priest, some of his poems are of a religious nature - to St Francis above all, but also to the Madonna.

There is, I felt, a complete absence of poems relating to his personal life unless one understands from one poem he lost his father at an early age and that he loves his mother tenderly.

However, one must appreciate the simplicity and the positivity that shines forth from this book rather than seek what is not there.

 

Wistin Attard OFMCap

Mal-Watar tal-Kitarra

Provincja tal-Ahwa Frangiskani Kapuccini Maltin

175pp

2013