Review of Five seven five

[Bradley Shelvie]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Five seven five" by Barton Johnson.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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This is the second review I am doing on Five seven five by Barton Johnson. I previously reviewed the book in the PDF version, but this review is on the Kindle version of the same book. Like the previous version, the book contains 366 haikus, each given an entry for each day—year-round—just like entries in a journal or a diary. The haikus have a well-defined rhyme pattern and all end syllables in all of the haikus rhyme. This is to say that the rhyme scheme is regular (can be predicted) throughout.

Not so much has changed from the previous version, so I'll just add more insight about the reading experience I've had and a recap of what stood out (and still stands out) most in the book to me.

The messages behind the haikus are thought-provoking, and they elicit deep self-reflection within their readers. We deeply connect with what the persona says, feels, sees, hears, and most importantly, the messages behind it all. The poems employ beautiful imagery that paints a vivid picture of the poetic world. This would be a difficult feat considering the brevity (haikus are really short; they have only three lines; there are only five syllables in the first and last lines and seven syllables in the middle line). The author managed to pack the whole poetic world with its very strong messages and the cocktail of feelings and emotions into the brevity of each of the poems.

The poems, as would be expected, employ poetic license to fit in with the poem structure and the rhyme scheme. Because of this, some lines may seem unnatural or awkward. I was a bit too critical about this in the previous review and said that some of the words seemed forced simply to align it with the structure and rhyme pattern. I had a change of opinion with this second read—these odd constructions add to the aesthetics, meaning, and enhance the structure of the poems. Also, poets are allowed to use poetic license in their poems as they please.

I also previously indicated the lack of titles made me dissatisfied to a great extent. This wasn't the case this time around. I presume it is because I had already read the book and I knew what to expect from each poem. Also, I must mention that this re-read opened my eyes to various things I did not catch the first time.

The poems traverse themes of love, the reality of life, sin, racism, religion, the eventuality of death and so many others that readers will relate to. There is no negative thing to note about the book, and there are no errors; this is an exceptionally well-edited book. Therefore, I still uphold my previous rating of 4 out of 4 stars.

The book suits all lovers of poetry, especially lovers of message-rich and well-written haikus.

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Five seven five
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[Manang Muyang]

Rhyming haikus are rare. I laud the poet for the feat. I am indeed curious to experience this book. That title is brilliant, by the way.

Poems wield power
They bring readers everywhere
An awesome wonder!

[Badmusjamiu44]

The poems expresses every area of human endeavour from love..to lifestyle to sin to death and every nook and cranny of human existence.
This is one of the few poems that speaks volume on humanity.

[Ghuddie]

Through provoking books usually catch my attention. This will be a great read. You delivered a great review. Well done.

[John Owen]

Quite a sharp change of opinion from the first review. This is a nice review.

[The Holy Grail]

I've read the previous review too. It's amazing that you discover new things on a reread.

[Essy moonlight11]

I've also read your review on the other version of this book. I like it that you have a change of perspective.