Customer Reviews

EXISTENCE

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I am not a poetry expert, but I enjoy reading contemporary poetry and I really enjoyed existence. McGill's work, while at times a bit stuffy and even preachy is also at times profound and really left me thinking. Some of his poetry especially the shorter ones, hit me with feeling like I had just realized something I had always known, but never really thought about. One of his poems, 'You Will Live them One More Time,' brought me to tears when I started thinking about my own young children. This book made me think about my life and what it all means.

My sister in-law bought this book and I have commandeered it. EVEN IF YOU HATE POETRY, you will love this book. The themes are so universal and it is full of relevant artwork and illustrations. While McGill's work is the primary focus of the text it is surrounded with some amazingly diverse texts that entertain various viewpoints of our existence. One thing that impressed me most is there is no apparent bias. Secular, Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, or Humanist, the author really has his bases covered with no apparent axe to grind or opinions to try to enforce. It is a very open-minded and refreshing presentation. Since the book has so many wonderful accompanying texts in it, one could hardly grow tired of the book or not learn something. McGill's works themselves are nothing short of brilliant. I did not care for some of his poems from his youth he included at all, nor was I much impressed by some of his more abstract poems that seemed to hover on themes of technology and science. That being said, some of his more classically styled poems just wash over your senses with a real passion you can feel in your soul. You can tell that this poet really is a deep thinker and has a passion for life. I could feel in a number of his works a real desire to reach out and empathize and feel and understand and love. Many of his poems just slide off of your tongue and you can tell that he has real mastery over his verse the way he moves actual meaningful human topics effortlessly through a demanding repertoire of allegories, metaphors, and carefully executed phonetic dances. No matter what reviews you find here, one thing is certain; McGill's work may not be consistently wonderful, but when he gets it right it is obvious that he is not only a skilled and practiced wordsmith, he is all heart and feeling, is not afraid to share himself, and some of his poetry is simply beautiful.