LIBRETTI LUMI
By Roy Anthony Shabla
poetry
ISBN:
978-1-105-18751-3
royanthonyshabla.comhttp://royanthonyshabla.com/books.htmlReview
by
LB Sedlacek, originally
for the "The Poetry Market Ezine" - March 2012
Roy Anthony
Shabla gets an "A" in visual
presentation for his new poetry
book,
"Libretti Lumi." Even the envelope it
arrived in had a poem by
Shabla stamped
on the outside -- a clever way to further
share his
poetry.
"Libretti Luma" is divided into two sections:
"Air Play"
"Cantata Aria" and "Word Play"
"lingua recitativa." Poems aren't titled
--
they are numbered making the book more like
how an epic poem might be
presented.
Poem III in the "Air Play" section is a
wonderful and
somewhat playful romp through
the ups and downs of love in a
relationship.
It explores appreciation of the earth, sky,
the breeze,
etc. "Air Play" contains
grounded poems that reach into the
every day
but also encompass the universe.
Poem IV in the "Word Play" section
deals
with the end of everything: "the city is
gone./Maybe it never
existed./the streets
go nowhere,/come from nowhere,/are nowhere./
the
buildings are merely a trick of the light,/
a glimmer in the wasteland ...."
In this
same poem, though, Shabla still presents a
glimmer of hope
including lines such as
"I sing./I sing./O you may not think of
my song as
singing,/but I sing ..." and
"I love you/you know this/I do not
think."
The last poem (V in the "Word Play"
section) is a fitting end
to the book:
"We say words/to each other//we say them/
like they mean
something...."
There is an overall sense of sureness and
calmness in
the poems presented in this
book. The subjects and symbollism are
sharp,
but yet they exude a relaxed state.
I'm glad I opened the cover and dived
on
in -- this is a poetry book I would read
again and again.
-----
The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning
HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at
Sharing with Writers and
The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using this little green retweet widget :
Thank you for this detailed review, Carolyn. Roy is a gifted poet and prolific creative. We are lucky to have him among us.
ReplyDeletevery sweet. thank you.
ReplyDeletei really appreciate the support, thank you. my books and other reviews can be seen at:
ReplyDeletehttp://royanthonyshabla.com/books.html
i am a longtime poet and publisher and i curate a monthly poetry series in the los angeles area. "like" hair club for poets / reading with scissors on facebook for announcements.
Fantastic book and review. I absolutely loved it!!
ReplyDeletethank you so much john. coming from you, that means something.
Delete