Spriha Kant – Fevers of the Mind

Book Reviews by Spriha Kant: “Othernesses” by Paul Brookes

Review of Paul Brookes’s book “Othernesses” by Spriha Kant

“‘Othernesses’ is the beautifully unique work knitted by poet ‘Paul Brookes’ and this knitting pattern has an impactful impression.” — This statement is justified by the facts and citations in the following stanzas.

The poet has wonderfully used personification in some poetries. Quoting a few words from one such poetry “The Rockpool” below:

“One minute I am scorched by sharp sunlight,
next I’m cold enough to ripple shivers.”

“In the wane I’ll have my own way, again.
Every to and fro never the same.”

Certain stanzas and/or words in some poetries recite the different aspects of life such as philosophy, experiences, etc, some recite through the garnish/garnishes of personifications and/or metaphors whereas some point out in a direct manner. Quoting such few words and stanzas below:

“I am a dying sea, a dried up thing.”

“Our specularities slide over surfaces,
change shape whenever the object, viewer
or environment moves.”

“We waymark each hour as it passes on.
All waymarks subject to going, gone.”

“World is Chrysanthemums in a picture.”

The poet’s empathy and keen observatory skill not overlooking the importance of insects in our lives show his considerate attitude towards insects that a negligible number of persons have. Quoting below a few words and stanzas proving this:

“We’d wallow in waste if there were no flies.
Praise them, their short lives, work and enterprise”

“You horrify me with your pure cleanliness.
Live in shittip, I’ll join you in the mess.”

“Scratch decayed wood until it splinters. Hunt
these spikes for soft white wood swallow inside.
Indigestible I make a hard front,
swallow soil ready to throw back up outside.”

The poetries woven by him as encomiums for his fellow artists by using insects as metaphors for them also contribute to proving his attitude as considerate towards insects as well as shows his greatness as an artist.

“Othernesses” by Paul Brookes is suitable for wise poetic minds, a spark that can light up the reader’s interest in entomology, and is fruitful to read.

Bios (Spriha Kant & Paul Brookes):

Paul Brookes:

Paul Brookes is a writer, local historian, genealogist, photographer, shop assistant and grandfather. Paul has lived in Wombwell, South Yorkshire for over twenty years, in a cat house full of teddy bears. He adores the counter intuitive. His first play was performed at The Gulbenkian Theatre, Hull. His chapbooks include The Fabulous Invention Of Barnsley (Dearne Community Arts, 1993). A World Where and She Needs That Edge (Nixes Mate Press, 2017, 2018) The Spermbot Blues (OpPRESS, 2017), Please Take Change (Cyberwit.net, 2018) As Folk Over Yonder (Afterworld Books, 2019). A poetry collaboration with artworker Jane Cornwell: Wonderland in Alice, plus other ways of seeing (JCStudio Press, 2021) with a foreword by Ian Mcmillan, a sonnet collection called As Folktaleteller (ImpSpired, 2022) with an introduction by Penelope Shuttle. Forthcoming is another sonnet collection: These Random Acts of Wildness (Glass Head Press, 2023). Paul is Editor of The Wombwell Rainbow interviews, book reviews and challenges. Paul has had work broadcast on BBC Radio 3 The Verb and videos of his Self Isolation sonnet sequence featured by Barnsley Museums and Hear My Voice Barnsley. For more: www.thewombwellrainbow.com.

Spriha Kant:

Spriha Kant is an English poetess & literary book reviewer.

Her first published poetry is “The Seashell” which was published in “Imaginary Land Stories.”

The poetries of Spriha have been published in the following anthologies:

Sing, Do The Birds of Spring
A Whisper Of Your Love
Hard Rain Poetry: Forever Dylan
Bare Bones Writing Issue 1: Fevers of the mind
Hidden in Childhood
A Glitter of Miles

“Hidden in Childhood” became the #1 bestselling book on amazon. This book consists of poems from about 150 globally acclaimed poets and poetesses, out of which most have been featured on NPR (National Public Radio), BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation),andthe New York Times. The wonderful Japanese painter “Hikari” featured this book in her exhibition in Tokyo in Japan. All the proceeds of the anthology book “A Glitter of Miles” went to the “Senior Staffy Club” (UK), a charity that helps older Staffordshire Bull terriers

Book Reviews by Spriha that have been released so far are:

The Keeper of Aeons by Matthew MC Smith
Nature Speaks of Love and Sorrow by Jeff Flesch
Washed Away: A Collection of Fragments by Shiksha Dheda
Spaces by Clive Gresswell
Silence From the Shadows by Stuart Matthews
Breathe by Helen Laycock
Woman: Splendor and Sorrow: Love Poems and Poetic Prose by Gabriela Marie Milton
These Random Acts of Wildness by Paul Brookes

Spriha has collaborated on the poetry “The Doorsteps Series” with thewell-known Southern Indiana poet “David L O’ Nan.”

Spriha has been a part of the two events celebrating the launches of the books:

Nature Speaks of Love and Sorrow by Jeff Flesch

As FolkTaleTeller by Paul Brookes

Words of Spriha Kant quoted on the first page of the book:

Her poetic quote “An orphic wind storm blew away a sand dune that heaped all our love memories upon one another.” has been published as the epigraph in the book Magkasintahan Volume VI By Poets and Writers from the Philippines under Ukiyoto Publishing in the year 2022.

Features of Spriha Kant (Interviews & Others):

Quick-9 Interview on feversofthemind.com (Interview Feature)
#BrokenAsides with Spriha Kant on the brokenspine.co.uk (Interview Feature)
Creative Achievements in 2022 on thewombwellrainbow.com

Invitation to Spriha Kant as a guest of honor:

Spriha graced the award-winning show “Victoria in Verse” as a “guest of honor” in “Bloomsbury Radio, London,” hosted by Victoria Onofrei which broadcasted on January 29^th, 2023 at 6 P.M. as per the time standard in London in which she recited her poetry “The Tale of a poltergeist”.

Links to features of Spriha Kant:

https://thebrokenspine.co.uk/2022/12/07/brokenasides-with-spriha-kant/

https://feversofthemind.com/2022/09/13/a-fevers-of-the-mind-quick-9-interview-with-poetess-spriha-kant/

https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2022/12/27/celebrateyourcreativeachievementsof2022-calling-all-poets-short-prose-writers-artworkers-between-26-31st-december-i-want-to-celebrate-your-creativity-over-the-last-year-please-email-me-a-list-plus/

Book Reviews by Spriha Kant: “These Random Acts of Wildness” by Paul Brookes

Review of Paul Brookes’s book “These Random Acts of Wildness” by “Spriha Kant”

This book consists of a collection of poetries. 

The poet in some poetries makes his readers travel in, around, and out of the different portions of the home including lawns, backyards, kitchen, etc., in some of which he shows glimpses of the chores and concludes the bitter truth of the world and/or one of the fundamental truths of existence that whatever is created is meant to be destroyed the one or the other day. Quoting the following few words and stanzas from a few such poetries:

“His toy won't 
  cut grass but safely glides over its length, 
  so he stamps and bawls when his world don't 
  conform to his straight lines, because it's bent. 

  My wife says “Better” to our short shorn lawn. 
  We all want the wild to be uniform.”

“Organic time tamed, all about decay 
  not growth. Imagine accurate time based 
  on a gradually emerging way. 
  However, all things reduce to waste. 

  Our Dandelion's blown clocks are seeds
  to be uprooted as unwanted weeds.”

“A wave that washes away proof 
 that any effort has taken place, stacks 
 temporarily, finds another use, 
 
 elsewhere that is not always clear, and might 
 be mistaken for anarchy, or loss 
 of control, not wise, sensible foresight, 
 briefly anthologises summer's floss. 
 
 Never enough time to read the new 
 collections before gust edits the view.”
In a few of his poems, the poet has described the cruel and violent behavior of birds and animals such as in the poetry “The Hedgehog,” the intense fighting sequences can be seen. However, a few words from the poetry “Inhale Dappled Sun” are influential to bring tears to a compassionate heart, as quoted below:

“Bigger birds to feed their young snatch 
  open beaked fluffy kids from nests”

The poet has mixed many different horrible flavors in his different poetries, such as the poem “Polishing Me” which has a blood-curdling hysterical flavor. Similarly, the acerbic flavor in the last stanza of the poem “I Put My Bins Out” can be felt, and many other different flavors are worth reading in this book. 
    
Both poets and poetesses sometimes do work like abstract painters by leaving their poetries to the interpretation of readers. The poet has done so in his poetry “My Vacuuming” by concealing many stygian truths beneath it. The comprehension of the quantity or quantities of stygian truth(s) and the stygian truth(s) comprehended varies from reader to reader. 

Apart from concealing stygian truths beneath the poetry, the poet has also directly pointed to the messes encompassing the world in his poetry “My Window Cleaning” and a few words he used in this poetry are very deep and hard-hitting and, in the end, he states the question whose answer is unknown to him that shall remain unknown to everyone forever. 

The title of this book “These Random Acts of Wildness” kept by the poet is apropos to the shades the poet has used to paint his poems and he just wants to see the wildness vanish from this world that he stated in a few poems. Quoting a few words from the poem “Ironing” depicting the efforts the poet makes to reduce the wildness of this world:

“My hard weight tames the uneven and wild, 
  makes it all proper, gentle, meek and mild.”

However, merely, a shade is not appealing to the eyes in any painting. So, to add beauty to this poetry book, the poet also added tints in a few poems. The next two stanzas unfurl a few tints the poet added to a few poems. The pan containing shades was meant to be heavier than the tints in the beam balance of the poetries in this book as the poet desires to see the world without wildness and hence constantly tries to reduce the wildness. 

Personification is usually used to make the readers visualize the beauty of nature in the poems but the poet in his poetry “In Washing Up” has beautifully used personification to add enthusiasm and to motivate the spirit of readers. 

As it has been stated in the few words from the preceding stanza that “Personification is usually used to make the readers visualize the beauty of nature in the poems” so is the case in the poetry “Wildlife Map” except that the beauty is about the interaction between the light and slug windows. 

The poet has shone a very few poems with a beauty whose intensity is high with the size of a tiny thermocol ball, quoting such few beauties from different poems below:

“Butterfly briefly stainglasses our window.”

“A specialist shop 
 had a bud float in my clear cup unfurled 
 before my eyes.”
 
The poet has used very easy words with brevity to express the message he wants to convey to his readers. The use of easy words with brevity being one of the peculiarities of this book makes it suitable to be easily understandable by even non-poetic minds. 

Bios (Spriha Kant and Paul Brookes):

Spriha Kant:

Spriha Kant is a poetess and a book reviewer.

Her poetry The Seashell was published online at Imaginary Land Stories for the first time.

The poetries of Spriha have been published in five anthologies till now:

Sing, Do The Birds of Spring

A Whisper Of Your Love

Hard Rain Poetry: Forever Dylan

Bare Bones Writing Issue 1: Fevers of the mind

Hidden in Childhood

Spriha has done seven book reviews till now:

The Keeper of Aeons by Matthew MC Smith

Nature Speaks of Love and Sorrow by Jeff Flesch

Washed Away: A Collection of Fragments by Shiksha Dheda

Spaces by Clive Gresswell

Silence From the Shadows by Stuart Matthews

Breathe by Helen Laycock

Woman: Splendor and Sorrow: Love Poems and Poetic Prose by Gabriela Marie Milton

Spriha has collaborated on the poetry The Doorsteps Series with David L O’ Nan.

Spriha has been a part of the two events celebrating the launches of the books till now:

Nature Speaks of Love and Sorrow by Jeff Flesch

As FolkTaleTeller by Paul Brookes

Her poetic quote “An orphic wind storm blew away a sand dune that heaped all our love memories upon one another.” has been published as the epigraph in the book Magkasintahan Volume VI By Poets and Writers from the Philippines under Ukiyoto Publishing in the year 2022.

Spriha has been featured in the two interviews till now:

Quick-9 Interview on feversofthemind.com

#BrokenAsides with Spriha Kant on the brokenspine.co.uk

Spriha has been featured in Creative Achievements in 2022 on thewombwellrainbow.com.

The links to the features of Spriha Kant are:

A Fevers of the Mind Quick-9 Interview with Poetess Spriha Kant

https://thebrokenspine.co.uk/2022/12/07/brokenasides-with-spriha-kant/

Paul Brookes:

Paul Brookes is a shop asst. Lives in a cat house full of teddy bears. First play performed at The Gulbenkian Theatre, Hull. His chapbooks include The Fabulous Invention Of Barnsley, (Dearne Community Arts, 1993). A World Where and She Needs That Edge (Nixes Mate Press, 2017, 2018) The Speernbot Blues (OpPRESS, 2017), Please Take Change (Cyberwit.net, 2018), As Folk onder (Afterworld Books, 2019). He is the editor of Wombwell Rainbow Interviews, book reviews, and challenges. Had work broadcast on BBC Radio 3 The Verb and, videos of his Self Isolation sonnet sequence featured by Barnsley Museums and Hear My Voice Barnsley. He also does photography commissions. A poetry collaboration with artworker Jane Cornwell resulted in “Wonderland in Alice, plus other ways of seeing”, (JCStudio Press, 2021). Recent sonnet collections of his: “As Folktaleteller”, (ImpSpired, 2022), “These Random Acts of Wildness”, (Glass Head Press, 2023), and “Othernesses”, (JC Studio Press, 2023).

Twitter: @PaulDragonwolf1

WordPress: https://thewombwellrainbow.com/

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/PaulBrookesWriter/

Amazon:

Book Reviews from Spriha Kant: “Woman: Splendor and Sorrow: Love Poems and Poetric Prose” by Gabriela Marie Milton

Review of Gabriela Marie Milton’s Poetry Book
“Woman: Splendor and Sorrow: Love Poems and Poetic Prose” by “Spriha Kant”

https://www.amazon.com/Woman-Splendor-Sorrow-Poems-Poetic/dp/1737296500

The beautifully gracious and wise poetess Gabriela Marie Milton needs no introduction so obviously, there is no room for any doubt that this book is mesmerizingly beautiful and has deeply heartfelt vibes. This book is a cradle of two clusters— Love Poems and Poetic Prose.
A fragment of words from the poetry “Henrhyd Falls (Annwn)” of the Welsh poet “Matthew MC Smith” contained in his poetry book “The Keeper of Aeons” is fit to evince the beauty with which this book shimmers and this shimmer has a thrust to mesmerize its readers:

“glint in glacier-ruins
where minnows flicker
in golden shallows”

The poetess has used personifications, similes, and metaphors in both poetries and poetic prose in different expressions.

She has adorned her few poetries and poetic prose with personifications, similes, and metaphors like a bride with jewel ornaments. Displaying a few jewel ornaments below:

“your voice moves stones in a lonely graveyard
to bury the tears I cry”

“Shadows tremble on the silence of the tombs like
virgins under the touch of their first lover.”

“A pink conch tolls the waves announcing the homecoming of
the chrysanthemums”

“stars rise over old memories of purple seas
like cherry buds”

“when cotton candy sunsets sing
I’ll deliver myself
in the arms of Morpheus
forever
and ever”

“During the nights
in which the moon is glossy and crisp like the crust
of a country bread, the woman’s body gives birth to
mountain chains and fragrant valleys.”

“I know he loved me. Yet his mind was too pedestrian
to understand.”

In the poetic prose “Of Wounds,” the poetess has personified the feelings of humans from a pessimistic angle. Through this personification, she pointed to human vices and the extremities of the adversities pushing humans towards vices. The words she used for pointing to the extremities of the adversities are like melting furnaces for kind hearts.
Quoting below the stanzas consisting of the personification of feelings of humans by the poetess:

“The Envy wears red lipstick and high heels. She
dances naked on a wooden table. At every turn,
she spreads poisonous confetti in the air, and she
lowers her eyes. I try to decipher the meaning of her
gestures. I cannot.”

“The Greed, with her childbearing hips, indulges
herself with poor souls who live at the margins of
the city. The children are hungry, and the mother is
long exhausted. The beds are cold, and the moonlight
enters the rooms through broken windows.”

Contrary to the pessimistic angle of the personified feelings of humans, the poetess has also shed a light on an optimistic angle. Showing below the optimistic face:

“Love and sacrifice are the consummation of all acts
that lead to the warm meal that one hands to an old
man who dwells in the streets during cold winters.
They are the sum of all unknowns. They are the
fingers that draw the light of stars in the darkest of
the skies.”

Each poem is a love poem with an ambiance of its own like chocolate with different flavors.

The poetess in her poetry “The Ides of October” added the flavour of the love of a mother by showing beautifully and in-depth how a woman reaches the seventh sky on giving birth to a baby. Replaying below one of the scenes containing a dialogue spoken by the poetess on the behalf of every mother:

“When I see cocoons of the larvae, I think silk as
soft as the hair of the child.”

The poetess in some of her poetries has added a philosophical flavour. In one such poem “You and I,” the poetess wrapped a new cover printed with her words around the fundamental nature of existence. Showing the cover below:

“a baby star looks down
impermanence of flesh”

In some of the love poetries, the poetess has added a gloomy flavour by including melancholy, hopelessness, helplessness, loneliness, regret, suffering, and tragedy in personal life and by also concealing the portion of the world submerged in the murky sea beneath the layers both through her few words and/or stanzas.
These represent the sensitivity, compassion, and awareness the poetess has.
Quoting below a few words and stanzas representing the sensitivity, compassion, and awareness of the poetess:

“I am neither a gift
nor something you can keep
I am the syllable forgotten on your lip”

“Eyes become the locus where the desert and the sea
meet.”

“I return to find the pardon of the sands
to kiss your dust left on your mother’s hand”

“your tired feet have walked the desert
thorns and thistles scarred your skin
squirming in a mire
enraged by liars
your nights of passions
felt like the apocalypse”

“Your face grows washerwoman skin.”

“kerf cuts your words left in my heart”

“I am as insignificant as a drop of blood floating
through the arteries of night.
Lost at sea the loneliness of sandcastles.”

“Roberto’s guitar sells cheap dreams by the sea
young girls are ready for harvest like flowers of lust”

“For three thousand years, sung by the poets of this
land,
the naked shoulder of the mountain reigned in
stillness.”

“you, my adulterated love
I light your fire
blindfolded I seek a buyer
for all my sins
for this September blood that I resold
and for the girl who once was me”

The poetess has added sensual flavour in some of her poems. She has picturized the sensuality beautifully, however, the expression differs in each sensual poem. Showing below the whole scene picturized in one of the sensual-flavoured poetries “Love Numbers”:

“We laid in the grass, shadows of poppies playing on
our faces with the same rhythmicity of the waves
on tranquil days.
At times we could feel the pulse of the new grains.
The line of my décolleté – as you used to say – nothing
else but the demarcation between inexorable
sins and the blushing tones of the sunsets.”

The poetess has recited a few of the prose in the form of a leaf with very few tiny dews. The leaf is the story and the dew is a tiny tinge of surrealism.
Showing a few words from one of the dewy leaves “Autumn Reflections” below:

“You waited for me at the end of the road. I felt your
hungry fingers unbuttoning my raincoat.

The children approached. Their little voices
pinched my brain like needles. Their thin bodies reflected
in your blue eyes.

I asked:

Can you see the children?

What children?

The children dressed in white. They are in your eyes. Why can’t
you see them?

Your fingers continued to unbutton my raincoat.

Lord, I must have been born on the day of children
who cannot be seen and cannot be heard.

I choked.”

There are a few tiny glints of woman empowerment in this book though but the poetess transmogrified into a tigress in the poetries “On Women’s Writings” and “Feminine Submissiveness.” She in her transmogrified form stripped the critical issues of feminism and woman empowerment nude through her daggering words echoing as bellows and roars from her spirit, influential to ignite the fire in her feminine readers’ hearts to not let any of their glass ceilings go without smashes.

Apart from all the previously mentioned peculiarities, this book has a lot more in it.

This book does not need any recommendation from anyone as the words in this book are fully presentable in themselves.

Bios (Gabriela Marie Milton and Spriha Kant):

Gabriela Marie Milton:

Gabriela Marie Milton is the #1 Amazon bestselling poet and an internationally published author. She is a 2022 Pushcart Prize nominee, the author of the #1 best-selling poetry collection Woman: Splendor and Sorrow: | Love Poems and Poetic Prose (Vita Brevis Press, 2021), and the author of Passions: Love Poems and Other Writings (Vita Brevis Press, 2020). She is also the editor of the #1 Amazon bestselling anthology Wounds I Healed: The Poetry of Strong Women (Experiments in Fiction, 2022).
Her poetry and short prose have appeared in various magazines and anthologies. Under the pen name Gabriela M, she was awarded 2019 Author of the Year at Spillwords Press (NYC). Her piece “If I say I love you” was nominated for 2020 Spillwords Press Publication of the Year (Poetic).

On July 6, 2021, she was featured in New York Glamour Magazine. Her interview can be read at the following link:

https://nyglamour.net/keep-going-greatness-always-encounters-resistance-gabriela-marie-milton

Spriha Kant:

Spriha Kant is a poetess and a book reviewer.

Her poetry The Seashell was published online at Imaginary Land Stories for the first time.

The poetries of Spriha have been published in four anthologies till now:

Sing, Do The Birds of Spring

A Whisper Of Your Love

Hard Rain Poetry: Forever Dylan

Bare Bones Writing Issue 1: Fevers of the mind

Spriha has done six book reviews till now:

The Keeper of Aeons by Matthew MC Smith

Nature Speaks of Love and Sorrow by Jeff Flesch

Washed Away: A Collection of Fragments by Shiksha Dheda

Spaces by Clive Gresswell

Silence From the Shadows by Stuart Matthews

Breathe by Helen Laycock

Spriha has collaborated on the poetry The Doorsteps Series with David L O’ Nan.

Spriha has been a part of the two events celebrating the launches of the books till now:

Nature Speaks of Love and Sorrow by Jeff Flesch

As FolkTaleTeller by Paul Brookes

Her poetic quote “An orphic wind storm blew away a sand dune that heaped all our love memories upon one another.” has been published as the epigraph in the book Magkasintahan Volume VI By Poets and Writers from the Philippines under Ukiyoto Publishing in the year 2022.

Spriha has been featured in the two interviews till now:

Quick-9 Interview on feversofthemind.com

#BrokenAsides with Spriha Kant on the brokenspine.co.uk

Spriha has been featured in Creative Achievements in 2022 on thewombwellrainbow.com.

The links to the features of Spriha Kant are:

https://feversofthemind.com/2022/09/13/a-fevers-of-the-mind-quick-9-interview-with-poetess-spriha-kant/

https://thebrokenspine.co.uk/2022/12/07/brokenasides-with-spriha-kant/

Book Reviews from Spriha Kant: “Breathe” by Helen Laycock

Review of Helen Laycock’s Poetry Book “Breathe”

Book Review by Spriha Kant

The sagacious poetess “Helen Laycock” needs no introduction. She has shown varied phizzogs in her writings, all influential to make the readers submerge deeply in them. 

In this book, the poetess has filled her certain set of poetries in a cell, and each cell is followed by a quote. 

The poetess in this book has expressed different feelings and has stated different circumstances through nature using personifications, metaphors, and similes. 

It is always said, “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.” Some poetries describing beauties of others unfurl the magnificent beauty lying in the eyes of the poetess, showing a few glimpses seen by the beautiful eyes of this poetess from one of the poetries “Dragonfly” below:

“you share
your iridescence
when you alight
on the fence,
flashing bright
your oiled magic”

“wings silver-strutted veils”
                                       
The poetess has created some poetries as frames, each inserting a picture of death, some pictures are of tragic death that can strike the hearts of sensible readers to bloody tears, one such tragic death can be seen in her poetry “Wisdom,” in one of the frames, the death in the picture is a ravenous vampire standing on the threshold, this picturization is in her poetry “Wolf.”
Quoting below a few stanzas from the poetry “Wisdom”:
              “Once white under 
                  a bright moon, 
                 ghost of dusk, 
               the love-faced barn owl, 
                   will soon be a husk, 
                its flight forever silent, 
              its round light shuttered, 
                              strewn. 

                    You fired, you goon.”

The poetess is the light in the darkness in some of her poems. This can be cited from the following stanza from her poetry “Virus” in which she acted as a pearl diver by taking out positive aspects from all the negativities of the world:

               “Two still worlds 
                   hugging quiet 
                  as nature unfurls 
               on the peopleless stage. 
                      Softly, it heals, 
               waiting for the creep 
                     of gentle feet 
                   and the whisper 
               of heartfelt promises 
               now we understand.”

Apart from acting as a pearl diver, she has also acted as a live painter by painting beautiful poetries based on her keen observations. Showing below one of the live paintings “Pinked” drawn by the poetess: 

“In the shimmer of sunset on rippling lakes 
             a flamboyance of flamingos 
                   are blushing lilies.”

The poetess in some of her poetries has also worked as a boatwoman by propelling personifications in her rivery-poetries. The words of the poetess Gabriela Marie Milton “A banquet of candles floods the streets” from her poetry “Professions” in her book “Woman: Splendor and Sorrow: Love Poems and Poetic Prose” fits to be used as a metaphor for the beauty of these rivery poetries. 

Quoting below a few stanzas from a few rivery poetries:

“The light begins to slumber, 
 and the rosy windows kindle, 
and the water strokes the barge 
        with soothing calm.”

“Gulping its way down the valley 
            of her slanted palm, 
a tawny brush sweeps and drags, 
sags between finger and thumb, 
for inspection and settlement.”

“Little glinting messengers, 
              marooned”

“Wind breathes fragile waves
        into saffron dunes”

However, the poetess has also swelled a few rivery poetries with pride by hoisting the flag of the glorious victory. This swelling is influential to motivate the readers to remain optimistic proving that the poetess is a light in the darkness. Showing the swelling in the following stanza from the poetry “Focus”: 

“Grey armour succumbs, 
  curls into a shot pellet, 
       rolls into the treasure trove”

The poetess has also worked as an intimacy director in her poetries “Tomorrow’s Bonfire” and “Moon Eyes.” 
The poetry “Tomorrow’s Bonfire” shows physical intimacy. Her direction to her   words is influential enough to make the readers visualize as if they are watching an erotic movie, showing the teaser of this erotic movie below:
 
“She bends her neck and gazes through the dark. 
 Her curling tongue begins its careful sweep, 
 maps contours, sampling the bond. 
 The slippery mass, inert, lies in a pool, 
 as limp as his discarded sodden shirt.” 
The poetry “Moon Eyes” depicts emotional intimacy, quoting the following words glittering with emotional intimacy:

   “we were together, 
            faces lit, 
     little moons 
      in our eyes 
like lucky pennies 
          glowing 
    in the darkness” 

The poetess has also worked as a tailor by beautifully sewing the metaphors and similes in her poetries like a sequin on a cloth. Showing a few sequins below:

           “blanch wintry night”
 
           “diluted sun”

          “frail as moon-thrown lemon-barley light”

                 “as chrome
             breaks a hole 
         in the chalky sky, 
              they are lit 
              like tinder.”             

                     “fleeting furrows  
             falling like chiffon festoons”

                                          “Bats 
                wrap up in overlapped, buttonless macs, 
                     peering over their collars like spies. 
                Some are the discarded gloves of thieves, 
                      balled-up leather in untidy pairs. 
                         They drape: grey, collapsed umbrellas 
                      broken by the windy commute 
                              and flung onto pegs.”

The poetess, on the one hand, has urged her readers to embrace the beauty of nature and interact with nature in a few poetries and has also paid tribute to nature in her poetry “Earth Mother” while on the other hand has shown nature’s inhospitable attitude in the poetry “Pines” which is commendable. 

This is a mesmerizing book for those wise poetic souls who are nature lovers and have beautiful hearts with a good sensibility as well as sensitivity. 

Bios (Helen Laycock and Spriha Kant):

Helen Laycock

Poetess and storyteller, Helen Laycock’s writing encompasses poetry, microfiction, flash fiction, short stories, plays, and children’s novels.
Former recipient of the David St. John Thomas Award, and nominee for the Dai Fry Award, Helen Laycock has been a competition judge and a lead writer at Visual Verse. Her poetry has been incorporated into a U.S. art exhibition and her collection Frame was featured as Book of the Month by the East Ridge Review in 2022. 

Most recent publications are in Sun-Tipped Pillars of Our Heart and Afterfeather, both published by Black Bough.

Her poetry appears online and in numerous writing magazines and anthologies such as Popshot, The Caterpillar, Writing Magazine, Poems for Grenfell (Onslaught), Full Moon and Foxglove (Three Drops Press), Silver Lining (Baer Books Press) and From One Line (Kobayaashi Studios). 

Imminent publications are The Storms Journal, Issue Two and Hidden in Childhood (Literary Revelations)

Current poetry collections available are Frame, Breathe and 13 (poems written in just thirteen words); she is also in the process of compiling several more themed collections.

Many of her poems can be purchased as postcards at Pillar Box Poetry.

Her website Conjuring Marble into Cloud showcases some of her work.

Laycock’s flash fiction has featured in several editions of The Best of CafeLit. Pieces also appear in the Cabinet of Heed, Reflex Fiction, The Beach Hut, the Ekphrastic Review, Serious Flash Fiction, Paragraph Planet, An Earthless Melting Pot (Quinn) and Lucent Dreaming – whose inaugural flash competition she won. She was longlisted in Mslexia’s 2019 flash fiction competition and her work has several times appeared in the Flash Flood as part of National Flash Fiction Day.

She is currently compiling a second volume of microfiction, Ink Spills, to complement Wind Blown, a collection which came about because of the Twitter #vss365 challenge.

She has also written several short story collections as a result of competition success.

These fall distinctly into one or other of the categories, Dark or Light…

Dark:

The Darkening

Minor Discord

Peace and Disquiet

Light:

Wingin’ It… Tall Tales of (Fully-Grown) Fairies with Issues

Confessions

Light Bites

More of her short stories and flash can be found at her website Fiction in a Flash

Formerly a teacher and a writer of educational text, Helen’s children’s fiction is suitable for readers of 8+ The stories are mainly mysteries, but a bit of humour has crept in, too, with a new book about to make an appearance shortly. You can find out more on her children’s website.

You can follow Helen at Facebook or at Twitter

All her books are available on Amazon.

Spriha Kant

Spriha Kant is a poetess and a book reviewer.

Spriha’s poetry “The Seashell” was published online at Imaginary Land Stories.

The poetries of Spriha have been published in four anthologies, including, “Sing, Do The Birds of Spring”, “A Whisper Of Your Love”, “Hard Rain Poetry: Forever Dylan”, and “Bare Bones Writing Issue 1: Fevers of the mind”.

Spriha has done five book reviews, including, “The Keeper of Aeons” by Matthew MC Smith, “Nature Speaks of Love and Sorrow” by Jeff Flesch, “Washed Away: A Collection of Fragments” by Shiksha Dheda, “Spaces” by Clive Gresswell, and “Silence From the Shadows” by Stuart Matthews.

Spriha has collaborated on the poetry “The Doorsteps Series” with David L O’ Nan.

Spriha has been a part of the events celebrating the launches of the books “Nature Speaks of Love and Sorrow” by Jeff Flesch and “As FolkTaleTeller.”

Spriha has been featured in interviews, including, “Quick-9 Interview” on feversofthemind.com and “#BrokenAsides with Spriha Kant” on thebrokenspine.co.uk.

Spriha has been featured in “Creative Achievements in 2022” on thewombwellrainbow.com.

The links to the features of Spriha Kant are:

A Fevers of the Mind Quick-9 Interview with Poetess Spriha Kant

https://thebrokenspine.co.uk/2022/12/07/brokenasides-with-spriha-kant/

A Book Review of “The Keeper of Aeons” by Matthew MC Smith review from Spriha Kant

(Published by The Broken Spine) https://thebrokenspine.co.uk/product/the-keeper-of-aeons-matthew-m-c-smith/

Review of Matthew M. C. Smith’s book “The Keeper of Aeons”

Book Review by Spriha Kant

The title of the book “The Keeper of Aeons” speaks itself for the work the poet has done in this book.

The poet has beautifully painted all his poetries with metaphorical and personified strokes, influential to make the readers flow with them.

In a few poetries, the poet has recited mythological stories and beliefs, influential to drift readers into them, one of the poetries doing so is “Reunion,” quoting the following few stanzas from the poem:

“In the harbour, the sails are shrouds. The town
is a sleeping dog at its master’s feet.
They lie in the heat of night, dark forms
in silver light. With a gentle rise of wind,
the palace and Royal room are cooled
by the sea. She lies still, skin prickled,
her body barely betraying breath.
Her first finger rises, feels his ribs,
smooths a ridge of strung muscle
under his bow arm, a column of sinews.”

“Earlier, they crossed over, a pulsing,
a piling of limbs, a shine of two swords
clashing in Athena’s light; surging,
heaving, rhythms of rapture and fall”

The poet is from Swansea, Wales, and accomplished his Ph.D. in Robert Graves and Welsh Celticism from the University of Wales, Swansea in 2006. He has academic essays on Robert Graves published in The International Journal for Welsh writing in English. So, it is obvious to have a reflection of the Welsh culture, traditions, and customs, the beauties of the eminent landscapes, sacred places, and prehistoric caves present in Wales, and Welsh vocabulary in his poetries like a reflection of flora and sky in a pristine still river. The description of the beauties based on his keen observatory skills in his rivery poetries add the sun glitter by making the readers swim like ducks and wade like flamingos in his rivery poetries, showing a few shots of the sun glitter below:

“Is this the womb-temple,
the mouth of Annwn,
through ciphered rows of rocks?”

“glint in glacier-ruins
where minnows flicker
in golden shallows”

“Step the green shelves – where shadows wind
and kinks of light kick as cupmarks bubble from a riven roof”

Showing glimpses of a few words used by the poet for one of the Welsh customs:

“Horror a horse skull, bargain its bygone breath with death.
The shock and shake of shell flays the air with its ribbon trail;
flails, tails, natters, rattles against glass, thumps, clunks doors ajar,
stealing heat to slate-sheen street.”

The poet’s attitude of flashing light on prehistoric species and objects while taking his readers on a ride to their prevailing state in the museums in synchronization with his emotions shows he is still a “fresh leaf,” on the fact that he completed his Ph.D. in 2006. However, this fresh leaf has also a deep love for prehistoric places and objects which is evident in the words he used in his poetry “Og of Coygan (Coygan Cave)”:

“When everything clears, eyes conjure images that twist in the spectrum.”

The poet has also added different flavors in a few poems, including, satires, hard-hitting words, and recital of pathetic conditions influential to make the heart weep, quoting a few of the flavours below:

“Walk with cracked feet through heat
of the city. People cross as ghosts, drifting”

“The low murmur of blood.”

“Tides are time’s erasure.”

“the paradox of human destruction versus quiet veneration”

A few poetries indicate the poet’s fascination towards “Space” which can be read in the following few stanzas from one of such poetries “What is Faith?”:

“It is knowing that nothing matters
that there is nothing else

but the dance of dust
around our bodies

and the speed
of light, impossibly fast

and far, which knows
no pain, an arrow without sentience.

That we were and are,
will be, so close

in moments uncounted, as we pass
through this carousel of space,

with hard laughter,
where lips are planets tilting

and limbs are luminous,
giant jets of cloud on axis,

against diamonds on black.
Our faith and belief are inside,

within, beyond each breath.
We, miracles of molecule,

with fingers that shape
and conduct our fervent whispers

to god.”

This book is a hair dyed in the streaks of archeology, nature, space, and mythology. However, there are a few poems vacuous of these streaks, such poems are scintillating like glittery hairpins in undyed black hair, one such poetry is “Winter Fever,” quoting a few following stanzas from the poetry:

“She kneels in silence, in a golden heart of light.
She is prayer, Angel.

Recovery is slow: veins blue, fingers white,
these hands, marmoreal.”

This book can be a reference for travel enthusiasts by giving them clues about the beautiful places to travel to in Wales. The poetries glittering with the beauties of the eminent landscapes present in Wales can prompt travel photographers to travel to Wales. This book can act as a root that can arouse interest in poetry and guide to writing poetry for all those untouched by poetry who are fascinated with space.

Bios (Matthew M.C. Smith & Spriha Kant):

Matthew M. C. Smith (Poet):

Matthew M. C. Smith is a writer from Swansea, Wales. He completed a Ph.D. on Robert Graves and Welsh Celticism at the University of Wales, Swansea in 2006. He has academic essays on Robert Graves published in The International Journal for Welsh writing in English.

Matthew is widely published with poetry and prose in Poetry Wales, The Lonely Crowd, Finished Creatures, Anti-Heroin Chic, Arachne Press, Atrium Poetry, Barren Magazine, Bold Magazine, Broken Spine Arts, Icefloe Press, Seventh Quarry, The Storms Journal, Fevers of the Mind, Bangor Literary Journal, Wales Haiku Journal, Green Ink, Twist in Time, and Acropolis Journal.

Matthew won the R.S. Thomas award for poetry at the Gwyl Cybi festival in 2018 and has been nominated for ‘Best of the Net’ three times by Icefloe Press, Acropolis Journal, and Broken Spine. He is the editor of Black Bough Poetry, the Silver Branch project, and the weekly online poetry platform TopTweetTuesday on Twitter.
He published Origin: 21 Poems in 2018. The Keeper of Aeons is his second collection.

Spriha Kant (Poetess and Book Reviewer):

Spriha Kant is a poetess and a book reviewer. Her poetry "The Seashell" was first published online in the "Imaginary Land Stories." Her poetries have been published in anthologies including “Sing, Do the birds of Spring”, “A Whisper Of Your Love”, “Hard Rain Poetry: Forever Dylan”, and “Bare Bones Writing Issue 1: Fevers of the Mind”. Her work has been featured in “SYNERGY: CALLING ALL WRITERS WHO ARE PHOTOGRAPHERS” on thewombwellrainbow.com. She has been featured in the “Quick-9 interview” on feversofthemind.com. She has reviewed four poetry books, including, “Silence From The Shadows” by Stuart Matthews “Spaces” by Clive Gresswell, and “Washed Away- a collection of fragments” by Shiksha Dheda, and “Nature Speaks of Love and Sorrow” by Jeff Flesch. She has been a part of the events celebrating the launches of the books, one by Jeff Flesch for “Nature Speaks of Love and Sorrow” and the other one by Paul Brookes for “As FolkTaleTeller.” She has collaborated with David L O’ Nan on the poetry “The Doorsteps Series.”