I found inspiration in this collection. Here you will find verses both stark and honest, leaving no hiding place for useless words. Every phrase serves a purpose to the structure of the poem. Most feel adventurous or seem to speak of potential action. Sparse verse does not mean a lack of evocative vision. There is much to draw the daydreamer and celebrate he who has seen both dark nights and bright days.

From “River Song”:

“Heeded, the words of the river heal The heart and soles of many, And the tears of life its ripples steal, The spirits strengthened there are plenty.”

The author obviously enjoys using words to play and say what he is feeling. In this world of tweets and text-speak, it’s refreshing to read words so carefully arranged, sometimes humorously, often played against one another to pull from the reader a feeling, a memory, or share a vision.

From “Sunset”:

“The sun has set and settled behind the earth’s cold crust To allow his lady to grace the heavens above this sapphire ball of dust.”

To offer fair critique, I noticed in many of the poems the basic, alternate (ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, etc.) rhyme scheme. As much fun as the word choices are, I’d be very interested in seeing more varied rhyme schemes, such as can be found in his “Groundhogs and Gravediggers” on page 23, and “Leaves” on page 54, in this collection. Such experimentation could possibly produce more complicated storytelling in a longer form. I’ll definitely recommend this. There are many quotable and vivid phrases to inspire and I can see myself re-reading my favorite poems.