Poet Reviews Love Poetry "Cherished Pulse"

Title: Cherished Pulse
Subtitle: Unconventional Love Poetry
Series: Multi Award-Winning Celebration Series of Poetry Chapbooks
Coauthors: Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball
Pages: 43 (Suitable for a greeting card)
ISBN: 9781449546052
$6.95 paperback, also available as an e-book
Available on Amazon

Mastery of Poetic Imagery

Reviewed by Samanthi Fernando

 

A sweeping journey across time, taking the reader through exotic places, to revisit and ponder on places and phases of the heart. My favorite among the collection of  poems in Cherished Pulse is Carolyn's silken dream "déjà vu?"  which is reminiscent of my own imaginative creations.  

Tender, revealing, colorful - definite mastery of poetic imagery: Cherished Pulse, half of the poems by Carolyn Howard-Johnson and half by Magdalena Ball,  is both a gift for the self as well as a unique gift to touch someone else.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Samanthi Fernando writes inspirational and spiritual poetry. Visit her at Starsafire Poems  http://starsafire.starrayz.com/wordpress/ and share the creations of her poetic ministry of hope and healing.


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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.

Poetry: Order Your Best Valentine Ever Early

Title: Cherished Pulse: Unconventional Love Poetry 

Authors:  Magdalena Ball and Carolyn Howard-Johnson. 

Genre: Poetry

ISBN: 9781449546052

Reviewer: Joy V. Smith 

Reviewer's link: http://pagadan.wordpress.com/

Review was originally published on Amazon

Publisher:  A Compulsive Reader Publication

Reviewer's rating: 5 stars

Available at Amazon in paperback and Kindle

 Reviewed by Joy V. Smith

 

Say it with poetry

 

This chapbook of poems is a delicious serving of loving and lovely thoughts, memories, and images of love shared and remembered in a breathtaking way, as in these lines from "Aurora":

 

 

"Red, green and purple curtains

waved above you"

 

"If I could capture that spectrum of

atomic neon sign of lost wonder"

 

As a science fiction writer, I so appreciated the cosmic comparisons in Magadalena Ball's poems. 

 

The first group of poems is by Magdalena Ball; the second group is by Carolyn Howard-Johnson.  All the poems flow and entice you into a world of longing and caresses.  Howard-Johnson's poems reflect the imagery of nature, as in these lines from "Dreaming Lilacs":

 

"hearing bougainvillea's fuchsia

song, taking shortcuts

across the lawn to kick

through jacaranda's silent

petalfall. Like Van Goh's flowers

twist their faces

 to the sun, ... "

 

These gentle, but stirring poems are a sweet gift to yourself, a friend, a loved one, or a young girl to show her what love really means...

 

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Joy V. Smith loves science fiction; she reads it and writes it and interviews other science fiction writers when she tracks them down...  Her SF includes Sugar Time (audiobook), two collections of her published short stories, Aliens, Animals, and Adventure andThe Doorway and Other Stories, and three e-books: Hidebound (SF romance/adventure), Pretty Pink Planet, and Hot Yellow Planet (the sequel).  But her latest novel is a western, Detour Trail.

Find The Doorway and Other Stories on Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007SV1FB2

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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.

Inexpensive Love Gift For Moms in Your Life?

By

Cherished PulseSubtitle: Unconventional Love Poetry
Authors: Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball
Genre: Poetry/Love
Author's Web site: www.howtodoitfrugally.com/poetry_books.htm
Available on Amazon as paperback or for Kindle www.budurl.com/CherishedPulse

Reviewed by Mark Logie (London), originally for Amazon

 

Magdalena Ball's poems in this collection display a considerable interest in, and enthusiasm for, nature, both on this planet and in space. This is appropriate for "unconventional love poetry" as love for someone else often makes them seem to be everything (ie, the universe); it is also not what we expect since, on the face of it, love has no connection with outer space or the natural world on earth. This particularly appeals to me.

The awe in which we hold the cosmos together with its beauty and loneliness also make it ideal for poems about love. For instance, "Galactic Collision", one of my favourites, is about the virtually catastrophic fusing of two people in love with each other. The comparison of a human heart to a black hole is amazing, bold and apt: after all, a black hole is so powerful that nothing -- not even light -- can escape it. And true, deep love, draws us in and won't let go. She then goes on to underline this by going to the other end of the scale: light ("black hole/ expanded into a cartwheel blaze"). Love it.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson, on the other hand, explores the inner recesses of the human world: the heart, the mind and the home, neatly complementing and counterpointing Ball's macroscopic world-view (or should that be "universe-view"?). As they say, "Home is where the heart is".

Howard-Johnson's skill is in choosing original settings for poems that address different sentiments from the expected. It is also evident in her relaxed style, which cuts to the emotional crux of her works in a simple yet elegant way and embraces the real issues rather than the simplistic pseudo-sentiments of most commercial greetings cards. For example, the bittersweet "Dreaming Lilacs", primes the reader to expect a poem about intoxicating, fulfilled love through its vivid evocation of place and utilisation of all the reader's senses ("It's you who had me dreaming lilacs,/ breathing April's sweetest tears, tasting sugared lemon rinds,"), then reveals that it is really about expired or unrequited love ("... As if you/ were with me,/ as if you loved me."). Brilliant.

All in all, a superb collection: different yet not totally unfamiliar.

Roll on the next collection!

~Mark Logie is an award-winning poet & short-story writer;. He is the author
of "On the Road to Infinity" & "You Have No Power Over Me"

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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. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using this little green retweet widget :