Writing has always been a say of survival for David Ray. In an interview, he said, “Finding the first word of a poem or story is like stepping onto a stone that may lead to bliss or at least an encounter with the spirit of truth…I always court the ‘eruption from the Unconscious’ that takes over as I ply surfaces of conscious concerns…Don Quixote is ever my inspiration.” In his poetry and essays Ray has addressed concern about the insanity of wars and inequalities in societies, and At Midnight also addresses themes of grief, the environment, and images from visual artists.
“A doubting optimist, David Ray writes of wounds that heal by the expression of them into compassion for acts of human behavior, and misbehavior… Ray’s poems nourish the heart as he writes of triumph over the bread of woe.”
– Martin Tucker, editor Confrontation, 1968-2010, author Plenty of Exits: New and Selected Poems
