This is a copy of a review done on Amazon.com of Norian Love’s book of poetry.

thirty relaxed and/or tense personal poems, an exploration of relationships

Four stars

As always, do not let my star count override your judgement of content. More on the stars, counting, and my rating challenges later.

From the opening poem, A Student’s Qualm, you will find nice writing and a lot of rhyming that is perfect or very close, and never feels forced. While Love does not always rhyme, he can certainly do so when he wants to.

For a relaxed, free-verse poem, go to the next entry, Breezy.

Most of the poems are about relationships, including The Morning After, After which is an introspection toward the end of a failing relationship.

A personal favourite here is Nancy’s Heartbeat, which includes this: “I wish you thought about me /If only for a moment /And before that moment /Comes and goes /I wish that you would hold it….”

In contrast, the poem Forward Play is more complex, beginning thus: “Inserting my hyphenation into your monologue /As you resist that painfully relaxing submission /I have you were I’ve wanted you to be….”

For a fabulous love poem, turn to Moment of Adoration, where we find this: “Beautiful rouge lips pressed gently against mine /When it happens it feels like we have just paused time /Let’s stop the world from moving if only for an hour /And call it daylight savings while we’re in the shower….”

For a long and interesting narrative, turn to Exes. There’s no way a quote can give you a feel for this poem, but the title is a clue.

Another love poem is The Scent of Forever, where we find this: “If passion weren’t so minuscule a verb /I’d refer to our work as an act of it /I hold you in my dreams /And forget you in my nightmares….”

These poems are not all simple, as in Soul Mate, where we find this: “She explained to me, “Success is just like suicide.” /“If at first you succeed, then prepare to be crucified.” /After we talked, she quietly removed that block /And told me to use her, and so I started to— nonstop /And I fell in love with holding her all over again….”

Other favourites here include Fairy Tale and The Rose. And, for interesting social commentary, turn to Nuclear Family. The title could be intended as a pun.

Given all that, how do I come up with four stars? I try to be consistent, and my personal guidelines, when doing an ‘official’ KBR review, are as follows: five stars means, roughly equal to best in genre. Rarely given. Four stars means, extremely good. Three stars means, definitely recommendable. I am a tough reviewer. This is nice work. Star counts are subjective, and your rating may be higher. Definitely recommended.

Kindle Book Review Team member.

(Note: this reviewer received a free copy of this book for an independent review. He is not associated with the author or Amazon.)