Poetry Book Reviews

With a reverent pen and an enlightened mind, Renhui delivers a restorative collection of poetry with Song of a Lotus Leaf. As the title implies, this is classic meditative poetry about the inherent and simplistic beauty of the world, but there is a strong base of self-examination beneath the surface of these observational pieces.

Acknowledging the clear divide in her years, between lifetimes in China and the United States, she also blurs the lines of experience and memory, making this polished collection both a memoir and a guidebook – a tome of appreciation, presence, and peace. While some of the […]

Broken up into distinct thematic sections – “Love & Family,” “Spiritual & Inspirational,” “Nature,” and “Philosophical & Social” – followed by a short fiction section, Rise: Poetry for Lovers and Thinkers by Henry Lee Thomas covers an impressively wide sprawl of topics and poetic forms.

Some of the pieces follow traditional rhyme schemes in this varied collection, while others are more narrative and free in their flow. The romance-inspired poetry reveals an intense, hot-hearted passion that the poet doesn’t always know how to control. Desperation and deep desire conspire in these poems, along with a see-saw of joy and struggle […]