Review of Modern Poetry

[Oyedeji Okikioluwa]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Modern Poetry" by Angel Lucas.]

---

4 out of 5 stars

---

Share This Review

---

Modern Poetry: Book I by Angel Lucas is an all-encapsulating collection of poems featuring love, pain, heartbreak, and life lessons, with themes featuring love and romance, life, and sexuality.

This book contains a total of one hundred and eleven poems. It is divided into three sections. The first is titled "Love & Romance," with a total of sixty-seven poems, and is a compendium of love struggles. The author rehashes a lot of harsh realities that people face in relationships and the pain that comes with loving. Her words contain stark reality, and she is remarkably candid in mirroring the personalities that people adopt in their various love relationships. The second section focuses more on real-life situations and experiences with forty-three poems. The author addresses humanitarian and societal issues eating up our society. She empathizes with life's burdens and enumerates love as a solid reason to keep fighting. In the last section, titled "Sexuality," with a poem, the author focuses on the gay community with solidarity and pens her respect for and belief in them.

Angel Lucas grabs attention with simple and vivid words. Some of the poems are notably short but effervescent and gripping in delivery. Several things captured my attention in this book and fascinated me until the last page. One of them is my favorite line in the book, which says, "Are you cursed or you are blessed and cannot see?" This line draws our attention down memory lane to when we remained blind to our blessings just because they didn't look like them. It prompted reflection from a different angle and aptly embedded gratitude.

I appreciate the author's easy-to-understand verbiage. It was easy to comprehend the meaning and essence of her words. I found the rawness and explicitness of her words highly enchanting. The poem "I would tell you that I love you," one of my favorite poems in this book, highlighted the concept of selfish or tired love. It's fascinating to read because as your eyes catch the word, there is almost a seamless translation as to what the author means or what perspective your mind chooses to understand. That's the beauty of poetry. Also, the book is well edited, with a few errors that didn't distort my reading flow.

However, there are a few things I dislike about this book. Some of the poems sound unfinished from their ending statements. The closing lines are not conclusive nor qualify the remaining stanzas. They just seemed to end abruptly. Also, several stanzas of poems need rearrangement to follow a linear sequence of thought, and some need to be more organized and relatively bland.

Therefore, I rate Modern Poetry: Book I 4 out of 5 stars. I removed a star from the rating for the reasons mentioned above. I recommend this book to poetry fans interested in love and real-life experiences.

******
Modern Poetry
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon

[Telwandle Ndwandwe]

I am a big fan of poetry. It sounds like I would enjoy reading it. The quote you liked from the book is definitely thought provoking. Great review

[FunkyFlowerLady]

I love poetry and this sounds like a good one on modern poetry. I'll give it a try. Great review!

[Chandelier Eden]

Sounds like a nice read. The emotions in poetry are also so dumbfounding.