A passionate volume that would be at home among other basic, uncomplicated inspirational texts.
Using scenes of nature, stories, and meditations on love and faith, Williams’ slim volume of poetry describes itself as “a journey into living, healing and growing in wisdom through the trials of everyday life.”
Divided into three parts, the work loosely addresses themes of inner knowledge, memories of loved ones and inspirational thoughts. Simple language and repeating themes make the book accessible, if not wholly original. The opening poem, “Love Flower Blooming,” aims to celebrate love from both oneself and others: “Never doubt that this love is meant to be / and that this love is for you and me.” The narrator expresses the joy of self-awareness in “Opening”: “I unveil my inner thoughts to the light with peace and love as my only motivation.” Other poems comment on how material success doesn’t mean spiritual comfort. Several entries feature specific anecdotes or characters, and these are the most compelling. “She’s Gone Y’all” relays the story of a woman who builds the strength to leave her partner and take her kids somewhere better. A cropped photograph of a woman’s eyes, which succeeds as a moment of intimacy on the page, accompanies the brief, poignant “My Mother’s Eyes.” Photographs of nature provide a built-in pause between poems and complement the spare collection. While some images are trite (“like a whisper on the wind not seen as it moves through a tree full of leaves”), a few clever metaphors appear (“Hands gripped tight strolling down the pathways of life. Never bother to look at the cracks along the way”). The introduction mentions how yoga inspired the poems, but Buddhism is not as present here as the title might suggest. General themes of light, love, faith and presence occur throughout, but there is little direct talk of enlightenment or suffering, which may disappoint readers who pick this book up based on its title. The simplicity of the volume holds it back from a more in-depth exploration of how self-awareness is truly found. The author, however, seems utterly sincere in her desire for the reader to be inspired and to be well.
A passionate volume that would be at home among other basic, uncomplicated inspirational texts.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2014
ISBN: 978-1494800321
Page Count: 60
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A volume of poetry that shines when focused on the author’s experiences of race and culture.
A collection speaks in part to the poet’s Mexican-American heritage.
In these multifaceted poems, Mexico-born, Houston-raised Salazar (Of Dreams and Thorns, 2017) explores general human themes like love and war in addition to specific experiences as a person of color. The book begins with a sensual meditation on desire, featuring luscious descriptions of a lover, from lips “moist like youth” to the body’s “softest velvet” slopes. The poems shift to odes to cultural icons like the Tejano star Selena and Mexican-German painter Frida Kahlo as well as occasion pieces honoring his brother’s 40th birthday and a friend’s mother’s memorial service. The author hits his stride when he delves into identity. In “I Am Not Brown,” he contemplates the societal implications of skin tone and his inability to fit into the rigid category of Caucasian or Latino. “For white and black and brown alike / Are slaves to history’s brush strokes,” he writes. “Grateful for the Work,” perhaps Salazar’s loveliest poem, catalogs the day of a laborer, starting with an early morning awakening and following him as he toils in 100-degree heat, enjoys tacos from his lunch pail, buys beverages from a child’s lemonade stand, and returns home to an equally hard-working wife. The author then makes an abrupt turn toward Syria in a series of poems that condemn that country’s president, Bashar Hafez al-Assad. They serve as a rallying cry for Syrians and grieve for the murdered masses. Salazar’s closing poem, “Sons of Bitches,” is a clunky rant about a 20-year-old immigrant shot in the head by a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent. The gratuitous violence and political theologizing are ill at ease with the intimate, personal experiences that preceded them, such as the fablelike “A Mexican is Made of This,” in which Salazar beautifully describes the “rainbows, bronze, backbone, butterflies” that his people embody.
A volume of poetry that shines when focused on the author’s experiences of race and culture.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9991496-3-8
Page Count: 166
Publisher: Bronze Diamond Productions
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Poems and images that ask readers to appreciate a searching body for its beauty and grace.
Diehl’s debut poetry collection showcases the arduous search for human connection and self-understanding.
In free verse poems that combine strong metaphors with prosaic passages, the poet wanders along a lifelong path of self-knowledge. She first describes it as a “pilgrimage…to accept what’s been deemed unworthy inside us,” and the trail leads to important insights. In a plainly stated yet necessary reminder, the author asserts that being human, despite the loneliness one may encounter, “is not a solitary pursuit.” Above all else, the book voices a desire for transparency in the self and in others. In “Clear Stream,” moving water illuminates objects within it, even as mystery waits at the bottom, and the water’s clarity corresponds to the speaker’s offering of his- or herself to view: “Here I am. // Come see me if you want.” Sometimes the tumble of words in these short stanzas suggests a pouring forth of injury: “It’s the show-stopping blow of loss upending a heart pain over pain till capacity for love regulates its beating.” Readers will understand a back story involving love and loss, difficulty in communication, sadness, and acceptance of children growing up. The poems gain strength from well-chosen accompanying images, including sketches and paintings by Dimenichi and colorful works by Jamaican-born painter Powell that enrich the verbal landscape. Several full-page images by each artist appear, suggesting a thematic connection or amplifying an emotion in a given poem. A richly textured, grand illustration of a tree by Dimenichi, for example, appears alongside a poem that celebrates the inspiration of such towering entities. A poem concerned with self-reflection joins a Powell painting of floating, twinned female forms. The figures seem to both depict and satisfy the speaker’s need to be seen, with their emphasis on mirror images, body doubles, and echoes of shapes. Even the windshield of a car can be a “two way mirror” behind which the driver is “invisible to life outside.” An explicitly female body is glimpsed in the sketches, and the warm, dreamlike compositions give it substance.
Poems and images that ask readers to appreciate a searching body for its beauty and grace.Pub Date: July 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-304-13091-4
Page Count: 58
Publisher: Lulu
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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