Official Review: 01 - Poetry by Dakota-Luise Wolf

Nathrad Sheare · Post by **Nathrad Sheare** » 18 Jun 2015, 04:07

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "01 - Poetry" by Dakota-Luise Wolf.]

3 out of 4 stars

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I've done some serious investigating into the demise of poetry in the U.S. My findings have been interesting, particularly for the fact that its killers seem to have been framed. I've found countless volumes of poetry on the web sites of online retailers, some of them bestsellers, as well as magazines that feature some outstanding work by modern verse- oriented minds from all over the country. The bell tollers might have been a little more thorough in their research of just what was in the coffin they made all their noise over. True, poetry in its literary form is not exactly mainstream. However, neither is grand opera, but even that ancient musical art, to my personal delight, is still alive and well, contrary to what one pessimist or another might say. Dakota- Luise Wolf's first volume of poetry is yet another installment in the timeless genre, and her efforts with it are in their way admirable.

The story of a life. That's what a reader can find here. Each poem is a cluster of thoughts on one of Wolf's memories, a real- life event or a set of actions that has inspired her with words of pain, adoration, or felicity.

Sure, upon first glance, the amateur quality of her work is unsubtle. However, the heart she's put into each verse is beyond criticism. Her passion for the people she's written about is entirely evident, as is her dedication to her creative work. The book runs just a wink over a hundred pages, and every page brims with a kind of Elizabethan emotion. The insight of the great masters' pens may not be evident here, but Wolf seems to have gleaned a lesson or two from them on putting one's being into words. Maybe using the adverb, 'wherefore,' a few times throughout was taking things a bit far, but each time she sat down at her computer or started scribbling in her notebook with her Shakespeare portrait pendant on, it is obvious that her heart was in the moment.

My consience always pokes me a few times when I approach with a critic's fingertips work that is directly connected to its writer's own life, but Wolf has put in writing a warrant for an honest critique, so I won't cringe too hard upon pressing the 'submit' button when I've finished here. Getting on with it... The greatest danger every poet faces when the insertion point first starts blinking on a glaring blank rich text document is finding himself/herself in that burning barrel of aimless and flowery phrases that is also known as sentimentality. For a reader that means too much 'listening' and not enough 'seeing.' I've done a lot of listening here, unfortunately. There is nothing surprising or particularly inventive about what descriptions Wolf does give, for instance "cute button nose" and "tears like diamonds." She also avoids experimentation with her structure and rhyming schemes.

In short, I would give Wolf's book all stars if emotional content was all I had to consider. I suppose that's most of what matters in poetry as it is, so well as the music that is possible in verse. I give "Poetry- Volume 1" 3 out of 4 stars.

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01 - Poetry
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Dakota-Luise · Post by **Dakota-Luise** » 19 Jun 2015, 16:36

Thank you Nathrad Sheare for you honest review

Nathrad Sheare · Post by **Nathrad Sheare** » 24 Jun 2015, 17:55

You're most welcome, Mrs. Wolf! I'm a poetry buff, so I was happy to review your book!!

mmandy38 · Post by **mmandy38** » 31 Aug 2015, 13:54

I am not too much of a poetry buff, but I did enjoy this volume. I agree that Mrs. Wolf did put her heart and soul into these poems and it is evident. I even screenshot a few of these so I could remember them because they hit so close to home for me (I hope you don't mind,Mrs.Wolf). I would also like to Nathrad's review that there were a few errors in this as well-nothing that took away from the meaning of the poems but just in case you wanted to correct them.