Wednesday 9 December 2009

A Burning Light of Verse

My Book Review of  Chronicles of a Sage:  Simple Complexities by Deborah Simpson.



Philosophical, spiritual, obscure and beautiful; those are the words that best describe the poetry of Deborah Simpson.  Her book Chronicles of a Sage:  Simple Complexities lends easily to flexible reader interpretation and is, in turn, sombre, wistful and beautiful.

The format of the book is interesting, laid out in five chapters with a discussion of the ideas at the end of each section; you are handed both expressive verse and introspective dialogue.  The poems themselves are a heady mix of thought-provoking themes wrapped around deeper meanings.  The lovely verse flows smoothly, with hidden gems of lines popping out of the blue.

“I walked within the air
Of dankness and ruin –
Stood on wall of inertia
Searching for impetus –”

The style of the poetry may be off-putting to some, but I enjoyed the atypical vocabulary choices and visual structure.  I think the choices were bold and dramatic, bending into fresh, vivid imagery.

“Just beyond the indigo puddles
Crouched crimson-plated stalks –
Relics of life once radiant
Now, the affinity of ruins –”

Simple Complexities is a quality volume of poetry, a striking literary work, which I heartily recommend.



Chronicles of a Sage:  Simple Complexities is available at:

Lulu.com: 
http://www.lulu.com/content/2062878

Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1435751612/

Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/5468


Just a note:  The copy of the this book used for review was provided free of charge by the author.

3 comments:

Pat Bertram said...

My kind of poetry!

"Relics of life once radiant
Now, the affinity of ruins –"

Lovely.

Joylene Nowell Butler said...

Sorry, I'm arriving late. Thanks for this, Anita. The prose are lovely and moving. I'm envious becuz I've always wanted to write like this.

Kim Smith said...

Me too Joylene! I started my writing life as a poet... do not know where all that went to! thanks for sharing AF!

Subscribe Now:

Search This Blog

Powered By Blogger

Monthly Pageviews