Review of A Way With Words

[Bradley Shelvie]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "A Way With Words" by Neal M. Warren.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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A Way With Words by Neal M. Warren is a collection of poetry and prose. The poems sweep through a variety of themes like nature (in poems like "Nature Grows the Tree"), a tribute to a dad (in "My Father"), and other topics. One of the prose pieces (titled "The story — Imagery of War — 1967") is a writing built from the author's journal entry about his encounters in war. Most of his poems are freestyle and the author does not stick to a specific style or genre.

One good thing about the book, which adds a touch of uniqueness to it, is the touch of personality evident in most pieces. When you read some pieces, you will see that they have an intimate connection to the poet in one way or another. The emotions felt when reading poems like "My Father", "Teardrop", and "The Night Before" felt so unique and original. The experiences depicted were personal at their core. For example, I felt the persona's deep sense of loss when he was remembering his father's time alive in the poem "My Father." The manner some poems were written sparked a feeling of empathy toward the persona. It would take forever to talk about the details in each piece, but this brings the picture.

However, there's a caveat. Despite the wonderful ability of eliciting emotion from the reader and the book's strong sense of personality and originality, some things didn't meet the mark for me. Most of them are just my personal perspectives of what could have been done better, but some are real deal breakers.

Some poems ignored standard punctuations that I felt were necessary, for example, using capital letters at the beginning of lines. I know poets have a poetic license, but there's a point it becomes abuse. It was hard to even mark any as an actual error because it isn't easy to know a poet's intent. Not knowing why some poems were the way they were was another reason for discontent. Also, some poems sounded so basic and it seemed the author didn't even show the least interest in adding any stylistic touch to them. There were also some poems I didn't understand completely.

I was considering giving this book 2 stars. However, there were good takeaways that made me switch to 3 out of 4 stars. For example, the author's unique personality was evident throughout and some poems were thought-provoking to read. If not for these reasons, I would have rated it lower. I recommend this book to lovers of poems and prose that cover a wide variety of themes like nature, the end of a friendship, recovering from a revelry's hungover, and many others.

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A Way With Words
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[Dayna Frank]

Thank you for your honest review!