Official Review: Passions: Love Poems and Other Writings
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- ElizaBeth Adams
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Official Review: Passions: Love Poems and Other Writings
Passions: Love Poems and Other Writings, by Gabriela Marie Milton, captures the feeling of someone who loves deeply and is no longer with her lover. The reason for their separation is left a mystery, but the poems repeatedly paint scenes of passion, loss, and an ache to be with her lover again. The book is broken down into three sections. The first section contains several shorter poems. The second section is poetry by Flavio Almerighi, written in both its original Italian and its English translation. The third and final section includes some narrative, free-verse poems that are vignettes of dialog and interactions between characters.
As mentioned, most of the poems centered around romantic love. One of my favorites was “Wooden bed.” The narrator is asking her lover to not destroy the bed in which they first made love. The poem’s ending reveals that she is writing from a concentration camp. Depictions of other types of love were included. The poem “Tombs” ends with a declaration that the narrator will always love her father. Other topics were mixed in as well. “No one’s world” juxtaposes intense descriptions of a rifle firing among the screams of children and brides with the narrator counting empty seats in a bar and someone’s coffee getting cold. The variety of topics made reading this book feel like I was flipping through a friend’s reflection journal.
There are many positive things to say about this work of literature. I immensely enjoyed the strong emotion evoked when reading it. Milton was also great about using a variety of words. I found myself looking up some in the dictionary because I was not familiar with their meaning. My favorite attribute of this collection of verses was the powerful imagery that the author used. Her metaphors were thought-provoking. I often found myself pausing to soak in her meaning, savoring the profound grouping of phrases. One of my favorite metaphors was found in the poem “Marigolds.” It said, “Old wounds crawl on my skin; columns of ants looking for honeydew on a tropical tree.”
I found myself not preferring the lack of context for the characters that the author used in her vignettes in the third section. Since this is a book of poetry, the reader should not expect a clear map of plot and characters. However, the author did consistently include four names: Jacques, Clara, Miguel, and Angelo. Bits and pieces of their stories were revealed. It was like finding a few pieces to a puzzle that you knew you loved and wishing that you had the other pieces. I felt the author could have offered a bit more clarity without telling a long, drawn-out story. This was my least favorite part of the book.
I give this well-edited book 4 out of 4 stars. The pieces that I did not like were due to personal preference. Milton delivers a stellar sensuous collection of tragic love poems. Readers should know sexuality and intimate moments are alluded to but are not explicitly described. I recommend this book to poetry fans who enjoy tragic love poems.
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Passions: Love Poems and Other Writings
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- Phelicia Gloria
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It’s so great to see a poetry book done well and received well, so I’m pleased~ Thanks for a wonderful review!
- Samgum50
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I love the book though the story are too emotional
- Priyanka2304
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