Robbie’s Inspiration – Book reviews: Nature Speaks of Love and Sorrow by Jeff Flesch and The Garden Black by Frank Prem #Poetry #bookreviews #Poetrycommunity

Nature Speaks of Love and Sorrow by Jeff Flesch

What Amazon says

In this hotly-anticipated debut poetry collection from Jeff Flesch, the author invites us to take a voyage with him through trauma and pain into acceptance and bliss in the embrace of nature itself. Jeff’s poems are infused with the textures and colours of the natural world, and his journey through this sensory paradise provides the backdrop to his inner journey towards healing and personal growth.

Jeff was voted Author of The Month at Spillwords for Jan-Feb 2022, is a featured contributor at MasticadoresUSA and MasticadoresIndia. His poetry is widely published both online and in print, and has received international recognition.

My review

I was introduced to Jeff Flesch’s poetry through Masticadores on-line magazine and his style and themes appealed to me. I was delighted to discover he had a recently published book of poetry which I immediately purchased.

The majority of the poems are an intriguing mixture of beautiful descriptions of natural settings and experiences in nature which he links back to his own on-going romance and love for his partner. the poet makes excellent us of metaphors to compare his love to outstanding natural phenomena. A lovely example of this is as follows:
“stars offset by the brilliance of your smile
into my heart
you shine”

The poems are all freestyle and follow a similar form and style with the changes manifesting through the settings. The poet’s use of language is striking and his descriptions are beautiful.

As always with poetry collections, some poems resonated more with me than others. I’ve set out a few of my favourite poems with a short extract from each.

Blueberry Tree –
“a land of roses bending over the sky
reminds me

of long-lost childhood times”

Limbs and Leaves –
“I struggle to find you
it’s as if the vapor of your essence was lost”

Cascading Water –
“cascades over the clouds, revealing
the stars’ hearts”

A delightful book of poetry that will uplift your mind and spirit.

Purchase Nature Speaks of Love and Sorrow by Jeff Flesch here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BC87MYPW

The Garden Black – and other speculations by Frank Prem

What Amazon says

The Garden Black poetry collection is a venture into fantasy and speculative fiction based on the dual themes of rain forest and fantasy.

. The rainforest becomes a desert, and then the sea.

. A man in a satellite orbits the earth while playing his violin and pondering. A girl gazes up at the passing light and dances.

. Od Ovo – a youth who is from here, raises the dust of frustrated boredom on a mining asteroid, and cannot believe traveller tales of places where water falls from the sky.

. What colour are the flowers in the Reaper’s garden? They are all colours . . . They are black.

Welcome to the speculative fantasies that are The Garden Black.

My review

I enjoy Frank Prem’s style of writing poems that despite their apparent simplicity, cut right to the heart of a topic, experience, or emotion. I have read several of his previous books of poetry and enjoyed them all, this one is a little different as it reaches beyond the now and the real and crosses over into the possible and the futuristic. Each poem is based on a real human event, experience, or emotion but the action, event, or feeling is stretched into the realm of the science fiction.

One of my favourite poems in the collection is a song for the (low) horizon, which melds the delightful action of playing music to please a crowd with the science fiction concept of space travel, with the violin player travelling in a space capsule and appearing to be a shooting star in the eyes of the audience who are living on other planets or spaceships he is passing.

This is a short extract:

“if they look
they’ll see a shooting star
hurtling
through the night”

Other poems focus on the human experience. Another favourite is the children which depicts the displeasure of a child thwarted in its wants and a refocusing on nature of dissapate the negative energy.

“child
can you smell
the water

child child
can you not smell
each droplet
of the rain”

The poet uses some beautiful and vivid descriptive language which delights the soul. An example is the poem coming up:

“climb
a ladder of raindrops

to take you
up
to the cloud”

For those that suffer pain, the poet shares his own experiences which are so relatable, they stop you in your tracks and force you to empathize and consider your own similar experiences. These words from pain control had this effect on me:

“sometimes …
most times
the day comes to me
too fiercely

too loud”

I could continue to wax lyrical about this extraordinary book, but I recommend that you read it and explore its marvelous depths for yourself.

Purchase The Garden Black – and other speculations by Frank Prem here: https://www.amazon.com/Garden-Black-other-speculations-Poetry-ebook/dp/B09TX294WX

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