Song of Light & Other Poems
I had the honour of being asked by Dr. D.C. Chambial, editor of PoetCrit, to write a pre-publication review of his latest collection, Song of Light and Other Poems. There are some big themes here, such as the inequality between the sexes, how low Man has fallen compared with the Divine, interactions with supernatural beings, life and death and the wonders of Nature, yet they are mostly handled with a delicate lightness of touch that leaves this reader, at least, with a sense of Chambial skipping and dancing through his passions, like a frog jumping from lily-pad to lily-pad, exploring as he goes.
The book is due to be published in the Summer of 2020 and, in the meantime, the full Shamanic Poet review can be downloaded free by clicking the button below.
The Speaking Stone
The Speaking Stone, the seventh collection of poetry by Pravat Kumar Padhy, takes on some huge themes such as consciousness, transformation, existence, time, the Cosmos and Nature, and does so with language that takes the reader out into the infinitely large at times and, elsewhere, inwards to the infinitely small. The Shamanic Poet review is free to download, below, and you can go here to buy a copy of The Speaking Stone for yourself.
Tainted With Prayers
Ram Krishna Singh asked me to review his book, Tainted With Prayers, which is available to read here and to buy here. This is an intriguing collection that I think I would have enjoyed more had the poet made different choices around punctuation. However, there are some powerful pieces in here, nevertheless, and you can access the review below.
This review has also been reproduced and translated by Joseph Berolo, the Columbian poet, on Uniletras, and is due to be published in India by Dr D C Chambial on Poetcrit in July, 2020.
Lines By Leon
Leon Stevens is a storyteller, artist and poet who I contacted on LinkedIn and offered to write a review of his first book, Lines by Leon, which is available here. In my opinion, this book contains some beautiful pieces, and it also includes some that I simply don’t think are strong enough to be there. I really want to honour Leon for his vulnerability in releasing this to the world, and for the good grace with which he accepted my sometimes brutal words which you can access via the Download button below.
Bright Pink Ink
Laura DiNovis Berry is a poet I met in a LinkedIn poetry group, and she approached me to see if I’d like to review her latest chapbook. It’s called Bright Pink Ink and it’s available here, while my review of her work is hiding under the Download button. Click to reveal.