These are my poetry books. Images by Rory d’Eon, composite by Inge. H. Borg.

Poetry is about truth. Truth is about experience. Poems can be light, funny; complex, literary; or strong, conveying an experience. So your experience could range from amusement to confusion/admiration to an actual ‘slice’ added to your life – a slice of life put into your brain through your eyes from a poem. I try for the ‘slice’ mostly, and mix in some ‘purely for fun’ stuff. Anything ‘literary’ is there to serve the other aims: to reach you, the reader.

So poetry is really about pleasure: your enjoyment in reading something that takes you out of yourself, or at least out of your immediate environment, for a pleasant episode. While a novel is like going to a long movie, a poem is more like a short – it has to ‘get it done’ in less time, with little wasted. Like movies, poems can be ‘unpleasant’ – some of us are big fans of horror flicks, for example. Like movies, poems can have surprise endings or interesting twists. And, like the better movies, a poem can leave a sense of experience, of relief, of amusement, or even of justification or fair play.

Why do I write poetry? Because I feel compelled. (When I was Application Architect, I would awaken with solutions to technical problems. Ideas would come unbidden and demand to be tested, and the good ones got implemented.) When I write poetry, it is much the same thing. Ideas come. They just won’t shut up, sometimes. The better ones get tested and workshopped and finally some of those end up in my available volumes.

I strive for quality. You deserve no less.

For an audible insight into my work and personal voice, click on the player below. This is a podcast captured by interviewer Rick Lakin of iCrew digital publishing.

Here is a list of my books that are now available  to you. You can scroll down, or use search, to reach each book. There are also hotlinks after the cover images – see below.

Cover Images by Rory d’Eon
Composite by Inge. H. Borg

Cold Comes Through Jump to this Book

This collection is about loss and coping. A personal anniversary was my kick-start motivation. A good poem is a bit like virtual reality: you will be offered an experience. The poems are not all dark; there are moments of hope and some humour as well.

Behind the Lime Kilns: Poems 2 Jump to this Book

These poems are mostly about relationships. You’ve been in some of them, sometimes in the tough part, and sometimes experiencing redemption, reconnection, resolution.

Hard Landing: Poems 3 Jump to this Book

This collection is not for children nor squeamish adults. Difficult situations are captured here. Some of them are scary. You may see into another’s problem, or recognize an aspect of your own. For comic relief, there are also ten salacious limericks. Sometimes it is useful to see another’s trial or agony. After that, a good laugh might help.

The Scroll of the Violin: Poems 4 Jump to this Book

These poems are about religion, irreligion, philosophy. They are not abstract, but visceral. You will be inside a point of view – many different points of view. Poetry is about experience, and these poems are mostly about belief, repudiation of belief, and sometimes resolution. There is no preaching here. You will just visit these situations.
The lead poem, The Scroll of the Violin, will reward re-reading. ‘Philosophy of Life, the Universe, and Everything’ is, well, not trivial.

Retirement Clock: Poems 5 Jump to this Book

The theme of this book is history, remembering, nostalgia and revisiting with new eyes. In the lead poem, the clock is momentarily (pun intended) a time machine.
Aging is tough. Nostalgia is a mixture of pleasure, pain, sadness, and acceptance. From To Crows Returning at one end of the spectrum (final penance) to Moon Dreamer at the other (almost a possession) you will find quite a variety.

Fortress: Poems 6 Jump to this Book

The theme of this book is separation, and relationships. There are affairs and almost-affairs, and some mildly adult situations. While many of the poems are short, they are there for a fun read and the book holds over 70 pieces. The longer ones will be more satisfying for the patient reader, and include a ‘wrong’ rondeau, a mirror, and some free verse. You will find love and loss, and slices of life, all passed to you in simple words.

Seven: Poems 7 Jump to this Book
This book returns to his earlier topic of loss. Loss of time, opportunity, loved ones, and of life itself. A life reduced to memorial names or tags on museum exhibits.

Loss includes loneliness on a subway ride, posessions melted in a fire, life long love turning a slow corner. Keeping an unusual pet solely for company.

Shell Tidings Review

Here is a cut-and-paste of a review done on Amazon Kindle of my first book, Cold Comes Through, by Shell Tidings, an official Kindle Book Review team member.

 `Cold Comes Through’ offers up a highly personal collection of a son’s memories of his father’s disappearance into Alzheimer’s and his father’s eventual death. The initial Author’s note resonates, stating that poetry belongs to us all (regardless of the monetary siftings of publishers say I). Throughout this work, objects take on the imprint of Jim Bennett’s father, not only as all he has left of his loved one, but also as an extension of the human being himself. In `Made to Last’ the malleability of cedar wood becomes a metaphor for life’s twists and turns, losses and loves. Loss is personified in the season of Fall, the edges of a life browning like leaves and migrating birds winging like a soul, leaving the mourners behind to face cold December. In one of my favourites `White with Aluminium’, even peonies in Spring are hidden underground in an image of sub-terrestrial hope. In other favourites `One Second’ describes a captured moment between loved ones and `The Gatekeeper’ beautifully evokes in countdown the expectation of an unamed thing in a relationship. If had one tiny quibble, the poems could occasionally have ended sooner. There is no need for a poet to explain meaning. For example, I would have liked the brilliantly realised metaphor `Picture of Wolves’ to finish with the tail of a sock, as death relentlessly chases down its prey. Yes, I have many favourites in this evocative collection that speaks to all of us who have experienced loss. The indents of the lines themselves hint at the washes of the tides of grief and meet the literal tides of a lake, whose `algal clouds’ and `tall sky mirages’ in `On The Bridge’ allegorise the depths of relationships. Pain is etched out in grit and vivid imagery of a grief-stricken landscape, thrown into relief by `ragged lids from tin cans and brown glass shards of beer bottles’, the ravages of which remind me of T.S. Eliot’s `Wasteland’. And yes indeed, I am aware of the comparison I make.

Shell Tidings @shelltidings
The Kindle Book Review

Inge H. Borg review

Here is a cut-and-paste of a review of my fifth poetry book, Retirement Clock, done by Inge H. Borg, author of mystery, romance, and thriller novels.

On my shelf, a heavy bookend holds treasured volumes tight against intrusion. There, they reign, my poets: Goethe, Schiller, Grillparzer. I grew up with them. Carl Sandburg, too, amuses; while Maya Angelou accuses. I love Poetry. It sings to me and stirs my soul.

Today, I shifted the heavy marble, for Jim Bennett, Canadian Poet, to take up residence among my favorites.

After several re-readings, Bennett’s fifth volume: Retirement Clock: Poems 5, was not an easy read, hitting home on so many fronts: Retiring from ‘being somebody,’ wilting away like autumn leaves, ashamed of our cruel world. Among the pages, there are four inter-connected poems in particular that made me stop and grieve; powerful beyond the thirteen years of passing.

If the poet will allow me to quote from The Path Now Taken. A misguided fanatic justifies his unthinkable act before Allah: “…the path now chosen absolves your path behind.” Not until the following Burning “I am the flame,” did the imminent threat quiver, then horrify in Executed “can’t get out.” The last of these four poems, Speech to the Statue of Liberty “I saw the flame of freedom fail…” ends with the pledge ‘we must prevail.’

I did not check pentameter, nor rhyme, which are technically perfect. I simply felt what I read. Some words swept over me at first, like that unexpected breaker on an unknown shore. But as I came to anticipate the next wave, moved back not to be swallowed up, followed it out into the surf to be taunted, I glimpsed precious pebbles underneath, watched blue-footed boobies soar above. This is today’s Poetry in all its glory, its depths, its bared feelings; haunting imagery of life passing…

Jim Bennett’s preceding volumes are equally as powerful. I strongly recommend you spend some stirring hours in their company.

My seventh collection of poems is available on Lulu in paperback. You can find it here.

Cover Image by Rory d’Eon

With this collection, Bennett returns to his earlier topic of loss. Loss of
time, opportunity, loved ones, and of life itself. A life reduced to memorial
names or tags on museum exhibits.

Loss includes loneliness on a subway ride, posessions melted in a fire, life
long love turning a slow corner. Keeping an unusual pet solely for company.

There is comic relief, and some pleasant experiences, capturing the small things
that make us human and able to cope and even look forward.

You will meet faces. Maybe your own, disguising motives. Maybe another, full of undiguised
rage in a public place.

Poetry is about experience. Not all of these will be gentle, but you will share
what Bennett has captured for you.

It’s all just words until you read them.

This book is also available on Lulu as an eBook. You can find it here.

This book is also available on Amazon Kindle. You can find this version here.

My sixth collection of poems is available on Lulu in paperback. You can find it here.

Cover Image by Rory d’Eon

This collection of 71 poems is about relationships, and sometimes broken relationships. The need to step back from a situation is captured in some of these poems: did we go too far? Did I not do enough? Were we ready for this? There is also a trace of escapism, for example, Fortress of Solitude, and Posession. There is also interpersonal interaction, as in Leading Questions, which is for sure not what you’re expecting by reading this. Shorter poems are for a quick read and a quick chuckle or a quick, oh my. Longer poems are for those patiently reading for the satisfaction that comes from an experience delivered by black-and-white words.

This collection is also available on Lulu in eBook form, which can be read by Adobe Digital Editions, a free download.

For those of you with Kindle devices, or the free Kindle Reader for PC, the book can be found on Amazon here.

My fifth selection of poems is now available on Lulu in paperback. You can find it here.

Cover Image by Rory d’Eon

This collection of 54 poems is about many things, including things past: Watkins Glen Grand Prix races and drivers; the Cold War, atomic bomb, and Polaris submarines; personal business experiences (no one ever comes back the same); retirement, aging, challenges and successes. There are many forms and a few longer poems, and a couple of slightly spooky ones (Baracoa, Moon Dreamer).

This collection is also available on Lulu in eBook form, which can be read by Adobe Digital Editions, a free download.

For those of you with Kindle devices, or the free Kindle Reader for PC, the book can be found on Amazon here.

 

My fourth selection of poems is now available on Lulu in paperback. You can find it here.

 

This collection of 69 poems is about experience: life and death, religion and irreligion, atheism and belief, religion and philosophy. There is trial, failure, success, relationships, and joy in this volume. As always, all poems are unique to this volume and have never appeared elsewhere.

You can also purchase this volume in Lulu digital format for the Adobe Digital Editions reader (which reader is free).

For those of you with Kindle devices, or the free PC Kindle reader, that electronic version can be purchased at Amazon.com here.

My third selection of poems is now available on Lulu in paperback. You can find it here.

 

This collection of 57 poems is about hard situations. Is it not intended for children, and is not for squeamish adults, either. There are a few normal relationship pieces as well, and ten salacious limericks. Plus a couple of pieces that were written just for fun; see UnInhibited for an example.

You can also choose to buy a copy in Lulu digital format, for the Adobe Digital Editions reader (which reader is free).

For those of you with Kindle devices, or the free PC Kindle reader, that electronic version can be purchased at Amazon.com here.

My second collection of poetry is now available on Lulu in paperback. You can find it here.

This collection of 56 poems is mostly about relationships. All are new for this volume. The title poem is about a, er, failed relationship, sort of.

There is also an Amazon Kindle version.

If you prefer to use Lulu’s digital format, you can also acquire this book for use in Adobe Digital Editions free eBook Reader. You can acquire this version of Behind the Lime Kilns here.

My first collection of poems as follows:

These poems are about loss and coping; life, love, and stress; and the real human excellence that allows most of us to manage most of the time. You find yourself in these poems, and feel the experiences of others. Some poems are straightforward, others are more challenging. My nephew’s grandmother has gone through the Amazon version three times and is starting for her fourth. To quote her: It’s like being there. This is poetry. It will do things to your mind, expand your experience, maybe change your heart.

Cold Comes Through is available in print format from Lulu. You can order your copy here. A search for Cold Comes Through on Lulu.com will also find this for you. You can peek at the first two pages of content on the Lulu website.

The same collection of 50 poems is available on Amazon as a Kindle reader book. Kindle devices, and PC’s with the free PC Kindle Reader downloaded, can access this version. You can have a look by using this URL.

You can also go to Amazon.com and select Books > Kindle eBooks and search for Jim Bennett or Cold Comes Through. A shortcut is here. You can find my author page at Amazon here.

If you prefer to use Lulu’s digital format, you can also acquire this book for use in Adobe Digital Editions free eBook Reader. A pointer to my book in this format is here.

My author page at Lulu can be found here.

I am proud of these poetry collections; each poem in every book was selected from a repertoire that has been work-shopped, edited, rewritten, and tuned. None of these poems has appeared anywhere before this. You can read the Product Descriptions on Amazon or Lulu to discover that you are interested in these volumes.

Thanks for your patronage.