Review of Portal

[Darlings O]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Portal" by Michael Jefferson.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Portal by Michael Jefferson is an interesting book filled with lots of poems. Michael wrote different kinds of poems which border on different themes. He wrote about love, war, hate, discrimination, and a lot more in this book. He wrote mostly about the things humans go through in life. Most of the poems are written at different times, but he put them together in this book to form a beautiful collection.

The book starts with a poem about love. Here, the poet longs for his lover, who I think is dead. He still misses her and wishes she is still with him. The next poem is about the typical story of a man who always beats up his wife and inflicts pain and injury on her. There is a poem that talks about alcohol, dreams, and so on. Most of these poems would teach a lesson to anyone that reads it.

I have never really liked poetry, and I don’t know what made me read this book. Anytime I read a poem, I never get to understand the message the poet is trying to pass across, or in some cases, I would misunderstand the message entirely. However, this one seems to be an exception from all other poems. I mean, I was able to understand the first poem of the author down to the last. I was able to get the message he was trying to pass across. I love the fact that I got to learn a lot of things from these poems. Some of the poems also seem to teach a lesson. For instance, the poem “Big-City Dreams” taught me not to allow greed and the love for money to destroy my life. It taught me to appreciate my family and be content with what I have. What I love most about this book is the way the element of rhyme was employed. This book was so fun to read because of this. Most, if not all, of the lines in this book rhyme with another line. All of the poems in this book have themes, and the author wrote in line with that theme without deviating from it. I also like the way the contents of this book were arranged. If not for the way this poem was written, one would think that this is a book of short stories and not poetry.

There was nothing I disliked about this book. This is funny because when I started this book, I meticulously looked for a reason not to like this book, but I didn’t find any. This is actually the first book of poems that I genuinely love. I found just a minor grammatical error in this entire book. So, it is safe to say that it is professionally edited.

I gladly rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. This is because of the numerous positive aspects I stated above. I didn’t deduct a star because there was no reason to do that. I recommend this book to lovers of poetry.

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Portal
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[abstactlemon]

I was immediately interested by the cover, it looks like it was made with crayon. From your review, maybe it was meant to juxtapose the deep topics discussed? But great review.

[Summer Henrietta]

I like the fact that there is message contained in every one of the peom. Great review.

[Eze Michael]

Writing about love, war, and tragedy can be quite hectic but interesting. I'd love to read the end result of the author's effort. Thanks for your honest review.