Poetry Book Reviews

Review: Sky of Dreams by Robert A. Cozzi

Sky of Dreams by Robert A. Cozzi

Award-winning poet and writer Robert A. Cozzi has brought to the page an emotive collection that will warm the heart and challenge the mind in Sky of Dreams. The poems follow themes and motifs that Cozzi’s previous works have touched upon, such as lost chances, romance, and the wonder of his environment, using touchstones of senses, nature, and light to describe his feelings.

Cozzi opens this volume with “New Hope,” in which faith reappears with the rising sun, followed by the affirmative “Strength Beneath My Feet.” However, he is not always so optimistic. His heart, he says, is a […]

2019-02-22T11:45:04+02:00January 11th, 2018|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |

A Lover in the Land of Hell by Jennie Haiman

A Lover in the Land of Hell by Jennie HaimanA Lover in the Land of Hell by Jennie Haiman begins on an appropriate upbeat note – “Welcome, Newborn” – and continues with an exploration of high-minded themes.

Haiman feels different from those around her, and speaks in these poems for the downtrodden: “Perhaps I’m here for a reason–maybe the world needs more like me.” She makes poignant cries for help for fellow beings, including animals, plants, and even the planet itself. She urges us to improve our thinking and “just give.” Two poignant works chronicle the life of a street cat and an old dog consigned to a shelter. […]

2017-08-29T02:24:08+02:00August 28th, 2017|Categories: New Releases|Tags: |

My Little Heart, Ruthie by Toni Jannotta, Illustrated by Jennifer Mones

Composed with victims of emotional abuse in mind, My Little Heart, Ruthie encourages and inspires with poetry and drawings. Toni Jannotta, actress and dancer, now branches out to write children’s books, in this case using limericks as her poetic medium.

Ruthie is a heart who plays a harp, but her hopes have been crushed by cruel words. When she tried to soothe people with her gentle sounds, they “barked and snapped.” She’s convinced she’s “stinky” and “ugly,” too lonely to make beautiful music—until she hears a song on the breeze that shakes her from the cold prison of her self-denigrating […]

2017-08-29T04:46:18+02:00August 28th, 2017|Categories: New Releases|Tags: , |

Review: Window Spit by Alan David Pritchard

Window Spit by Alan David Pritchard

In Window Spit, poet Alan David Pritchard expresses how reflections through an imagined window can reveal the way a poet sees the world outside, and the way he sees himself.

Pritchard is an author, educator, and poet who has chosen in Window Spit to depict himself as both observer and the observed. Part I of the collection – “Looking Out” – details in verse his view of humanity through a hypothetical glass. He warns, “Beware the poet who spits in your eye.”

In several poems, Pritchard laments that people choose to communicate with unseen others on their wifi devices […]

2020-12-18T05:31:47+02:00August 23rd, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: |

White Wine and Medical Marijuana by Julia Cirignano

White Wine & Medical Marijuana by Julia CirignanoEmerging poet Julia Cirignano explains that neither intoxicating substance named in her title has “necessarily helped me create great art, yet I feel that they help define me,” hence the title of her evocative first work of poetry, White Wine & Medical Marijuana.

Cirignano may be just starting out as a poet, but her perceptions evince timeless insight. Most of these poems focus on encounters with men. With one, she knew from the first glance that “all hope was gone”; one just likes to have lots of girls, so she can’t be surprised that she’s just “the next one”; […]

2017-08-21T06:35:51+02:00August 17th, 2017|Categories: New Releases|Tags: |

A Generation of Dark: A Prison Notebook by C.F. Villa

A Generation of Dark: A Prison Notebook by C.F. VillaAfter fifteen years in solitary confinement in a California SHU (Special Housing Unit), writer C. F. Villa offers short poems and essays chronicling his prison experiences, along with memories of childhood in an indigenous family.

Villa asserts that SHUs restrain, control and essentially torture those inmates who demonstrate most resistance. The picture conveyed by Villa of his enforced isolation is extremely depressing, yet he mixes endearing family photographs among the essays, along with poignant recollections of his mother. Remembering his twelve-year-old self, Villa recalls his grandfather who served in World War II, his father who always believed in him, taught […]

2017-06-27T06:48:35+02:00June 22nd, 2017|Categories: New Releases|Tags: , , |

Memories Left by the Roadside by Paul Leestma

Memories Left by the Roadside by Paul LeestmaIn his second book of verse, poet Paul Leestma vows to go beyond his own experience, creating a new view of larger concepts of love and destiny. In this emotionally charged collection, the author delves into the mystical quality of memory and explores it in depth.

In Memories Left by the Roadside the themes are at once universal and also intensely personal: “As I have aged, so has my love for you”; “Do you still think of me when you hear our song?” There is palpable melancholy, as when he remembers the girl who lives on Rte. 29 with whom […]

2017-06-20T05:56:35+02:00June 19th, 2017|Categories: New Releases|Tags: |

Let’s Go Dancing in the Light by Gloria D. Gonsalves

Let’s Go Dancing in the Light by Gloria D. GonsalvesA poetess and storyteller, including children’s fiction, Gloria D. Gonsalves will touch hearts and minds with her evocative short compositions in Let’s Go Dancing in the Light: A Collection of Poetry and Prose for Soul and Spirit.

Admitting a leaning towards Christianity, Gonsalves embraces other faiths in this uplifting and well-rounded work. Some pieces exude the enigmatic quality of a Zen kōan, as in “To the Denizens of Now”:

There’s no year…Would we want a calendar?
There’s no finish line…Would we stop bustling?

Each piece in the collection speaks of gritty human experience, sensual and violent, poignant and unexpected, […]

2018-03-06T11:23:30+02:00June 16th, 2017|Categories: New Releases|Tags: , |
Go to Top