Nancy Famolari calls Sublime Planet "A Celebration of Earth"

Sublime Planet
By Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball
The Celebration Series of Poetry
Celebrating Earth and the Universe
Genre: Poetry/Nature/Science
Photography by Ann Howley
Available e-book and paperback

Reviewed by Amazon Vine Reviewer Nancy Famolari Our world is both magnificent and terrible. These poems celebrate both aspects. I delighted in the lush images of places I've loved seeing them through the eyes of someone who loved them, too: Santa Ana winds, poppies, the plains of Kansas. There are also harsh poems like "Trash Tree" that show us the dark side of ourselves and the world. My favorite is "The Man I Love and the Writing Spider" because it's so close to my own experience. I watch the spider build a web of silver threads delighting in the intricacy. But when it leaves the web and wants to come inside, it becomes the enemy. I want to squash it, but I'm grateful when some kinder person rescues it and gives it another chance at life or death. The poems not only invite you to relive sensuous experiences, but they make you think about the world, how important it is, and how we need to care for it. The book is a wonderful gift for Earth Day. A good time to meditate on the magnificence of the world.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Nancy Famolari splits her time between her farm in the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania and a smaller farm near Ocala, Florida. She and her husband love riding their Paso Finos in the Endless Mountains and in the Goethe Forest near Ocala. She is the author of the Montbleu Murder series. The Endless Mountains, a lovely rural area with many small towns dating from the early 1800s provides the background for the novels in this series. She also writes romance novels about her experiences racing, breeding, and training Standardbred horses for harness racing. Her most recent mystery  is Yellow Diamond Caper,  http://www.amazon.com/Yellow-Diamond-Caper-Nancy-Famolari/dp/1480151181/

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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.

Midwest Book Review Celebrates the Environment

 

 

Sublime Planet

Celebrating Earth Day and the Universe
Magdalena Ball & Carolyn Howard-Johnson

Cover Photography  by Ann Howley

Genre: Poetry/Environment
CreateSpace, www.createspace.com
ISBN Paperback: 9781482054705 $12.95

Kindle www.amazon.com $4.95

 

Reviewed by John Burroughs, originally for  Burroughs' Bookshelf on Midwest Review

 

Award-winning poets Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball present Sublime Planet, a poetry compilation with a strong ecological theme. Some of the free-verse poems have been previously published in a variety of print and online journals; now they are gathered into a single volume to celebrate Earth Day, and promote environmental awareness. Lucid and erudite, Sublime Planet succinctly reminds one that the body that it is part of a much greater ecosystem, and stirs the soul with its call to the duty of stewardship.

 

"The Giraffe"

 

A tongue generous

as my head he reaches

for me, barriers no match

for his long neck, sniffs

my hair, kisses my face.

He is unaware

he is endangered,

I unaware he might

be dangerous.

 

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as they are published and become available to the reading public.

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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.