Kategorie: Poetry

Devotions, The Selected Poems of Mary Oliver

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AuthorMary Oliver
PublisherPenguin Books
Date10 October 2017
EditionKindle edition
Pages477 (print-version)
LanguageEnglish
ASINB01MZHR2P7

“Listen, are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life? / While the soul, after all, is only a window, / and the opening of the window no more difficult / than the wakening from a little sleep.” (Quotation from “Have you ever tried to enter the long black branches, pos. 2487)

Content

These more than two-hundred poems are a personal selection of her poems, selected by Mary Oliver herself. She begins with her latest collection, Felicity, 2015, followed by Blue Horses 2014, Dog Songs, 2013, A Thousand Mornings 2012, Swan, 2010, Evidence, 2009, The Truro Bear and Other Adventures, 2008, Red Bird, 2008, Thirst, 2006, New and Selected Poems, Volume Two, 2005, Blue Iris, 2004, Why I wake Early, 2004, Long Life, 2004, Owls and Other Fantasies, 2003, What do we know, 2002, The Leaf and the Cloud, 2000, West Wind, 1997, White Pine, 1994, New and Selected Poems: Volume One, 1992, House of Light, 1990, Dream Work, 1986, American Primitive, 1983, Three Rivers Poetry Journal, 1980, Twelve Moons, 1979, The River Styx, Ohio, 1972, and ends with her first poetry collection No Voyage and Other Poems, 1963 and 1965.

Theme and Writing

These poems are moments of observations and thoughts about nature, rivers, even stones, sun, snow, roses; we meet animals like foxes, horses, birds, especially herons, and her beloved dogs in her Dog Songs. Just simple moments, calm afternoons, evenings, sunny mornings in a quiet special surrounding of the beautiful nature and the poet wants to share these special moments, thoughts and feelings with us. Every single poem wants to show us the beauty of our world, to protect it and just enjoy every day of our life and be grateful for it.

Conclusion

“The poem is not the world. / It isn’t the first page of the world. / But the poem wants to flower, like a flower. / It knows that much. (Quotation from “Flare” 8., pos. 2361) These poems by Mary Oliver flower and touch our mind and souls.

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Your Soul is a River – Nikita Gill

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AuthorNikita Gill
PublisherThought Catalog Books
Date12 June 2016
EditionKindle
Pages160 (Print edition)
LanguageEnglish
ASINB01H0RMWTC

“I hope you find someone who knows how to love you when you are sad.” (Original quotation, page 132, A Midnight Thought)

Content

A selection of powerful poems, each of it telling a story. They are divided into chapters with the following titles: The Cosmos. Fire. The Storm. Ache. The Sea, the River, the Ocean. Wild. The Earth. Heal.

Themes and Language

Nikita Gill is one of the modern poets who share their impressive thoughts also via Instagram. She writes about love that hurts, ends and still hurts. These are powerful poems about darkness, the unbroken forces of nature, about growing strong again, hope and the journey of our souls to heal the inner child. Her language reveals deep feelings and she knows how to paint pictures in our minds and souls.

Conclusion

In these modern poems lyricism flows with richness of pictures painted by poetic words and feelings, rhythms like a stormy sea, darkness and sadness, and the hope of being strong and whole again.

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Unsent – Penelope Shuttle

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AuthorPenelope Shuttle
PublisherBLOODAXE BOOKS
Date1 October 2012
EditionPaperback
Pages270
LanguageEnglish
ISBN-13978-1852249502

„What is it with poets and their hearts? They leave them in the oddest places.” (Quotation from “Hearts”, page 241)

Content

This is a new collection of poems from nine of her published books, published between 1981 and 2010 and a new collection, “Unsent” from 2012.

Themes and Language

Thema und Genre TextThe poet has written poems about everything, everyday situations and feelings; nothing seems too simple, flowers, rain and roses, art, nature, Cornwall’s impressive landscape, dreams and magic, children, especially about herself as a mother and her daughter Zoe. We find poems about love and poems written about her love for her husband Peter Redgrove who had died in 2003 and how she still is missing him.

Penelope Shuttle has words for everything and embraced by her feelings between the words, her language paints beautiful pictures full of wisdom, wit, happiness and sadness.

The first poem by Penelope Shuttle, I had read, was “Outgrown” written for her daughter Zoe and it is still one of my favorite ones

“….. because just as I work out how to be a mother

       she stops being a child.” (Page 107)

Just a few words to describe everything about motherhood.

Conclusion

Unsent is a collection of poems, not of classical rhymes, but of a beautiful poetic language, with its own intonation and rhythm, sensitive, stunning and deeply impressing. They are experiences of life, to share with our own experiences.

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Poems to Live Your Life By – Chris Riddell

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AuthorChris Riddell
PublisherPan Macmillan London
Date20 September 2018
EditionHardcover
Pages208
LanguageEnglish
ISBN-13978-1509814374

„Tread softly because you tread on my dreams“ (Original quotation from a Poem by W.B. Yeats, page 64)

Content

This beautifully illustrated book is a collection of poems, some well-know, some known but forgotten, and others that might be new for the reader. The different poems are grouped together by topics: Musings, Youth, Family, Love, Imaginings, Nature, War, Endings.

I found my favorite poem by W.B. Yeats, as well as poems by Lord Byron and Dylan Thomas, together with song texts by Nick Care and Leonard Cohen. One of the poems that deeply impressed me is “Outgrown” by Penelope Shuttle.

Conclusion

This collection definitely are poems to live your life by, an enjoyable book that is not meant to be read and shelved, but to be taken whenever you need time to reflect and unwind.

Ein wunderschön illustriertes Buch, das eine Sammlung von Gedichten enthält, Gedichte, die man kennt, Gedichte, die man längst vergessen hatte und auch Gedichte, die man bisher nicht kannte. Die Werke sind nach Thema gruppiert, es geht um Jugend und Ende, Familie, Liebe, Krieg, Natur, Träumereien und Phantasiegestalten.

Hier fehlt auch mein Lieblingsgedicht von W.B. Yeats nicht, es ziert sogar als Auszug die Rückseite des Buches. Wir finden Lord Byron, Dylan Thomas, natürlich Klassiker wie William Shakespeare, aber auch Songtexte, zum Beispiel Nick Cave und Leonard Cohen. Doch es sei nicht zu viel verraten, es ist eine breit gefächerte Sammlung, es macht Spaß, sich überraschen zu lassen und Neues zu entdecken.

Sicher kein Buch, das man durchliest und dann ins Regal stellt, sondern ein Gedichtband, den man gerne immer wieder zur Hand nimmt, um nachzudenken und zu entspannen, oder einfach zum Vergnügen.

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