You will know if you are passionate about poems; dithyrambically nor sonnet and etc., having all the discernment and complacency, and your imagination works like a repertory; caught your self in a idyllic-congruence of heartily penned words.
(Passion)
4.
I have three phobias which, could I mute them, would make my life as slick as a sonnet, but as dull as ditch water: I hate to go to bed, I hate to get up, and I hate to be alone.
(Tallulah Bankhead (1903-1968), U.S. screen actor. Tallulah, ch. 1 (1952).)
Therefore we value the poet. All the argument and all the wisdom is not in the encyclopedia, or the treatise on metaphysics, or the Body of Divinity, but in the sonnet or the play.
(Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), U.S. essayist, poet, philosopher. "Circles," Essays, First Series (1841, repr. 1847).)
'GRAIN is a selection of twenty-eight love sonnets and one long contemplation on death and dying that touches the heart directly. The poet brings about a beautiful unification of love and death which has a direct impact on the intriguing mind. The moment of death and its aftermath are amazingly portrayed and meticulously crafted so as to make anyone drift away into a world of hope.
A mature poet, Doug Bentley not only demonstrates his ability to merge the strongest of emotions. He also shows the poet's ability to reach out to the dreamer in the present technological age and touch his heart in a very private way. As a poet who believes strongly in the power of mysticism, Doug Bentley has produced this poetry book to reach out to the dreamy soul.'
'GRAIN by Doug Bentley is an erudite, insightful, and provocative poetic journey through the mystical regions of the human psyche. From first word to last, this thought-provoking volume of sonnets and free verse begs to be pondered - to be mulled over and savored like a fine wine. Shakespearean and scientific references inform each of the meticulously crafted sonnets and free verse poems in Grain. Eternal questions are asked but seldom answered - in classic Socratic style, each question leads to another question. From ‘Gravity 1': 'one lifetime is a thousand too short/to learn the answers to every question/but instinct has a notion.'This book has much to teach and a timeless cadence that imbues its wisdom with wonder. To quote William Shakespeare, of whom the author is so nobly fond: "The object of Art is to give life a shape' (A Midsummer Night's Dream) . Doug Bentley's Grain is an enduring and welcome addition to the literature that will shape worlds to come.'
(-Review by Rich Follett for Readers' Favorite)
7.
Bursting blooms of bluebonnet to the sun sing silent sonnets..
A beetlebored bamboo flute.. Yonder wind plays upon it
(Saiom Shriver)
8.
Scorn not the sonnet; critic, you have frowned,
Mindless of its just honors; with this key
Shakespeare unlocked his heart;
(William Wordsworth (1770-1850), British poet. Scorn not the sonnet; critic, you have frowned (l. 1-3). . .
The Poems; Vol. 2 [William Wordsworth]. John O. Hayden, ed. (1977, repr. 1989) Penguin Books.)
REVIEW: Sorrows and Joys - - Colin Ian Jeffery
ISBN: 978197459830
Paperback £5.14 Amazon or any good bookshop
Collection of 212 poems
Colin Ian Jeffery is a leading Christian poet and all poems in this collection have been published in newspapers, magazines and anthologies. The collection gives an insight into the driving forces behind his poetry, with the main influence, seen in such poems as ‘Christians' and ‘King of Kings, ' being his spirituality. ‘Pope Francis, ' is a poem that acknowledges his Roman Catholic background, and gives insight into the poet's spiritual formation in the Roman Catholic Church.
The poem ‘True Love' shows his passion and belief that love must be free and never held captive.
Love must be set free
For this I know
The caged bird sings for flight
Dying captive
Looking through the bars.
Some of the sonnets are addressed to the great love of his life, the mysterious lover who moved the poet to compose some of the most poignant love poems ever written, a love for the poet that was a rock within a stormy sea giving support against raging purple storms.
The collection covers many different topics dealt with powerfully and artistically with a variety of topics such as peace, war, history, love, sorrow, death, and childhood memories in such poems as ‘Wally Gog' and ‘When I was young.' The poet is a modernist with the development of imagism stressing clarity, precision and economy of language. He has a strong reaction against war and the oppression of innocence, but unlike others poets in the modernism movement like Dylan Thomas and Ezra Pound he has a profound faith in God.
