Review of Waves
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Review of Waves
My experience walking into poetry slams has always been spectacular. Poets' ability to evoke and express my deepest emotions and thoughts is always refreshing. A good poem must, therefore, always speak to the thoughts and feelings of the readers. That is why I had so many expectations when picking this book, Waves, by PJ Thomas, for review. I'll have to state right away that those expectations were met.
The book is a collection of 98 short poems, most just one page long. The poems are not grouped or classified in any way; instead, they are numbered and follow each other in no definite order. Each poem has a different title and covers a different theme or different aspects of the same theme. The most dominant theme of the book is nature. The author found a way to weave the landscapes, views, and weather into almost all those poems in a nicely done play of words. The other topics were love, life, sorrow, loss, heartbreak, music, friendship, and many more. Most of these poems were free verses with frequent rhyming lines, words, and stanzas. The book's organization was simple. Each page contained a header with the author's name, the book's title, and then the poem titles. The poems were written in block formats and aligned to the left of the page.
I absolutely enjoyed reading this book. PJ Thomas sure is a great poet. Her poems' calm, reassuring, and optimistic tones stood out for me. They were not only enjoyable to read out loud, but they were also profound and insightful. I found myself snapping my fingers on several occasions. Thomas had a word for everyone in the poem: people facing rejection, those in love, those in any form of pain, and friends. Her advice in the poem 'Mending Fences' caught my eye. She says, "I always recommend to friends falling straight into one's sorrow. Maybe that's not your recipe. Everybody weeps differently. But I find that fighting it is to prolong suffering. Caught in the struggle, I forget the beauty in tears, in their honesty, in acknowledging the ways we crack and mend." Here, she emphasizes the importance of sometimes letting ourselves suffer and grieve. She does it so calmly and in a persuasive tone. This is just one of the many instances of the book that challenged and inspired me.
The author's command of the language is also impeccable. Her descriptions of nature were vivid, satisfying, and peaceful. Given her other works, there is no doubt about her passion and love for nature. Take this, for instance, " Can we meet on the beach? Me from the sea, and you hanging from a tree with the apple, the palm frond, your rock salt, and lava. I bring you buoyancy, helpful whalebone from the bottom of the deeps, and blue-green algae." This is from a poem about love, but you can see how expertly she weaves aspects of nature into it. My favorite poem was the one titled, Moving on. This is because I related to it the most, and it soothed my soul. I also loved that the author used simple language that made the poems easy to comprehend despite being profound.
I, therefore, give it a perfect rating of five out of five stars. It is well-written and exceptionally well-edited. I couldn't find any flaws in the book. I recommend it to all lovers of poetry and students of life. It contains valuable advice, beautifully and lyrically delivered.
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Waves
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