#Poetryreadathon – Star Signs: New and Selected Poems by Lynda Mckinny Lambert

What Amazon says

Lynda Lambert covers a wide terrain of subjects and topics in this new book, from lights to legends to seasons, treating us to images and metaphors about plants, people and weather. She opens this large collection with the title poem, Star Signs, which walks us through the alphabet as it digs through thoughts, emotions and observations, “Using star signs to map out new terrain.”Throughout this book of poems, these gems of poetic creation shimmer like beads on her fabric art, like bold brush strokes of color on her paintings, and reflect light like the gemstones on her prize–winning piece of mixed–media fiber artwork. It seems this entire collection is like a multifaceted mural.Her attentiveness to nature and strong reflections from memory have woven from a collage of remnants a beautiful tapestry for us. It offers a wonderful feast for the eyes and the mind.—Wesley D. Sims, author of Taste of Change Painting in Mid–OctoberAutumn’s morning light revealed changesUndermined the scarlet–red paletteTaking center stage on the paintingUndulating rain cast gray–violet huesMisty diffusion brought a new perspectiveNot anticipated yesterdayAroused the softened brushstrokesLayered over the primed canvas.Dying is a careful arrangementA graceful staged performanceYellow leaves are faithful dancersSpectacular choreography!

My review

Star Signs: New and Selected Poems is a marvelous book packed with the most beautifully descriptive poems about a wide variety of different topics that are grouped together under the following four sections which indicate their overarching theme: Lights Across the Sky, Distant Legends & Metaphors, Transmutation of Earthy Elements and Seasons, Days and Years.

The poet’s use of language is rich and theatrical as is illustrated by the following short extracts:
“Accomplishments seem possible
before dawn
concentric choices are unlimited”

“The lively sonata of midday skies
responds to the muted notes of night skies.
Time is temporal. Immeasurable.”

“My jewelry box embraces
yesterday’s vanishing dreams
favourite obsessions – polished and hidden.”
This quote is from one of my favourite poems in this collection: Sleeping Beauties.

The poems are mainly written in free verse but there are a number that are pantoums, a form of poetry which makes use of repeating lines throughout the poem. It is composed of a series of quatrains; the second and fourth lines of each stanza are repeated as the first and third lines of the next stanza. I am in awe of the poet’s ability to create poems that form a perfect story using this style of poems. The repeated lines lead effortlessly into the new lines, which support them and continue the flow and rhythm of the words seamlessly.

Purchase Star Signs: New and Selected Poems

About Lynda McKinney Lambert

Pennsylvania author, Lynda McKinney Lambert (b.1943) writes her award-winning books, stories, and poems full-time at her rural western Pennsylvania home in The Village of Wurtemburg. Lynda has 3 books on Amazon at this time. A fourth book will be available in January 2020. She is a prolific poet and non-fiction author.

Her latest book release is _Star Signs: New and Selected Poems_ by DLD Books, 2019.
This is a collection of 54 poems; 145 pages. Poems span her career from the mid-1980s to the present.

Lynda’s first chapbook _first snow_ is scheduled for release on January 3, 2020,. by Finishing Line Press. She is delighted about her first chapbook publication, _first snow_ which is a collection of 30 poems. Her books are highly recommended and endorsed by notable editors and publishers.

She creates art and writings from the inspirations of her life-experiences of teaching, travels, and her home life in a century-old home located in the historic Germanic village where her ancestors lived for generations. Her home is situated on a ridge overlooking the 50-mile long, Connoquenessing Creek where she lives with her husband, Bob, and their rescued dogs and cats. The couple take care of any feral cats who drop by for a good meal or shelter. They tend their traditional Zen Meditation Garden year-round. They walk their dogs in the woods and observe the life-cycle and passing seasons of natural elements in their world.

Lynda is a retired Professor of Fine Arts and Humanities, Geneva College, Beaver Falls, PA. With her extensive background in Fine Arts, English Literature, and Humanities, she creates mixed-media fiber art for exhibitions and her writings that are published internationally. Lynda has been called “A Renaissance Woman” by a number of editors.

Her first book _Concerti: Psalms for the Pilgrimage_ was published in 2003, and is a collection of essays, poems, and drawings she created while living and teaching in Salzburg, Austria every summer. She taught a course, “Drawing and Writing in Salzburg” for Geneva College. She lived there each summer and worked in her art studio and wrote extensively.

Her second book _ Walking by Inner Vision: Stories & Poems_ was written after her sudden loss of sight due to Ischemic Optic Neuropathy. This book is a year-long journey from January through December via 27 stories & 16 poems. She struggles in learning how re-invent her life and to walk using her inner vision. MEMOIRS – FAITH – HISTORY

Readers tell Lynda “This book was like walking in a beautiful dream. I did not want it to end.”

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