Sunday, September 1, 2024

Talking Leaves Scrapbook, poems --by Vivian Mary Carroll

 Publisher: Casa Urraca Press (June 11, 2024)

Paperback: 108 pages

ISBN-13: 978-1956375169

Native American Poetry, Poetry by Women

5 Stars

 

Beginning with the first poem, I was captivated. She gives us a “Haibun for Buffaloes Beneath a Crescent Moon”—a short one paragraph prose poem followed by a haiku. The best history I’ve read of the taking of land by the dominant caste. 

 

Carroll’s poetry covers a lot of territory, and several of the roads, the trips, have also been made by me, and I love reading what she saw, what she wrote of things we both saw, but differently. She saw far more than I. And wrote beautifully about them. 

 

“Cherokee Sevens” is a whole new form to this reviewer. There are seven stanzas, each stanza has seven syllables, each syllable has its own line. A native version of a haiku? 

 

“Spacious Skies” gives us a glimpse of ‘rainy Puyallup’ and the Washington State Fair, and her trip to the Pacific Ocean. I love her descriptions of places I’ve visited often through the years. Her poems take us all over different times and places with a marvelously unique voice of a member of the Cherokee Nation.  

 

A beautiful book not to be missed. It belongs by your bed, or wherever you read. It belongs on your bookshelf. It belongs in your hands as you read and re-read the poems.

Buddha's Cat, poems --by Wayne Lee

 ASIN: B0D6V9SP7Z

Publisher: independently published (June 11, 2024

Paperback: 51 pages

Poetry, Literary Fiction

5 Stars

 

I loved reading this book so much I’ve read it 3 times. There isn’t a poem in this book that will not twist your emotion with humor—or tears. The first poem, Buddha’s Cat, is one such poem. Actually, it’s one of the best explanations of the philosophy of Buddhism I’ve read. I’ve long thought that if reincarnation is true, I want to come back as a spoiled lap cat. Buddha’s Cat showed me where I was wrong—I should want to come back as a bird or a mouse.

 

The poem about the beach dog is wonderful. How this dog lives, and the respect he earns is laugh out loud delightful. If you like cats and dogs, if you’ve ever been owned by one or more, read Buddha’s Cat. Most poems are short, with just a couple being longer. All the poems are worth the read. Honest. Trust me.