This is the fifth review I have done on Amazon as a Kindle Book Reveiw Team member.

Nature, military experience (some scary!), lyrics and haikus. A fun read.

Three stars.

As always, you should not let the star count decide for you. Here you will enjoy 36 poems in various forms and levels of depth. If you like similes, Sledding is for you. The images range from fresh to bizarre, and they all work. This book easily rates three stars plus.

In some poems repetition is used to strong effect, in particular in Green, and Step by Step by Step (one of my favourites). The military theme occurs elsewhere as well, including The Hunt, Metal, and Wild (another favourite, once I guessed what a clad is). In this small poem the armoured vehicle is wilder than the wilderness it chews up. Short and powerful.

There are a few poems of nature, with the human condition brought in as well, as in The Shore. There is simply lyric beauty in poems like The Angel, and in the fun poem Lonely Walkin’ Blues. The poem Life, beginning with ‘Life is but man’s / strangest rose’ is another favourite.  If I had to make tiny carps, they would be these. The poems are not all equally strong, with some of the earliest ones showing less power and control, less clarity of purpose, as the later ones. There were one or two poems I did not truly understand. That’s OK, everybody doesn’t have to get everything.

The four haikus are all cute, neat. And if you’re looking for social commentary, read Yellow. Again, this is a fun read. Recommended.

Jim Bennett  (Kindle Book Review Team)