Customer Reviews

A Book Of Minutes: Poems

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am always struck by the gentle immediacy of Cathy Smith Bower's poetry.

These poems are in form, but they do not feel constrained. Each poem, more or less, is made of "sixty syllables in rhyming couplets with a syllabic line count of 8,4,4,4- 8,4,4,4- 8,4,4,4."

You won't be disappointed with this book--each poem will take you on an emotional journey. Something that only a very talented poet can do in such a small space.

Cathy Smith Bowers' "A Book of Minutes" is the best book of poems I've read in a year. Set up like a medieval prayer book, "A Book of Minutes" put me in a meditative state as I read and re-read the poems. The form--called a minute--provides a kind of Zen repetitiveness that helps Ms. Smith Bowers slide her words into the reader's mind. What wonderful stories she has to tell, from the natural world through the human world, through happiness and sorrow! Wonderful book! I have give it as a gift to several friends who enjoy poetry.

I am always amazed by this author - if you haven't read the other books of poetry, get those now as well. You don't have to be an avid fan of poetry to enjoy Cathy Smith Bowers. She writes for everyone and says things in ways that will overwhelm and enlighten. Read these when you can laugh out loud, and weep openly.

Cathy Smith Bowers wrote this book of poems in part as a response, a dealing with the death of her brother to AIDS. She notes in the preface that the minute form was a way to try and focus her writing. As a poet myself I can understand that completely. There are times when you have something you desperately need to get out of paper but they can not take the write shape to truly give you catharsis. Mrs Bowers has succeeded in showing us a world of minutes.

I will keep this review short, but I want to make a point of saying that this is a book of poems that could appeal to a wide audience. The poems range from sexy, to humorous, to sad and didactic. It is a well thoughout collection presented in an intriquing format playing off a medieval book of prayers.

I read a poem a day from this book until I was finished. It was like a brief moment of meditation. The only drawback to completely a collection completely in such a rigid form is that there are a few poems that don't quite seem fulfilling, but that could just be my opinion :)