Poetry

Review: Remember the Sweetness

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Cover image of "Remember the Sweetness" by Polly Giantonio

Remember the Sweetness

Remember the Sweetness, Polly Giantonio. Rootstock Publishing (ISBN: 9781578693993) 2026.

Summary: A debut poetry collection capturing memories of beauty, loss, love, and family, both ordinary and profound.

When one thinks of “debuts” one often thinks of a budding young artist. However, what one encounters in this debut collection of poems are the reflections of one who has lived with life’s joys and vicissitudes. This allows Polly Giantonio to remember young love, view paintings in a gallery, or glimpse the seeming commonplaces of rural Vermont life with a richness of lived experience.

The collection opens with “The Praying Mantis.” We see with her the greenness of the “emerald queen,” hands cupped like “a baby sleeping” who is yet part of the “mystics in meditation.” We go blueberry picking with her. And we remember with her being toddlers with blue stains on our cheeks gobbling palmfuls of blueberries.

Other poems are memories of youth. “Surprise” reminds us of being sick at home when a parent brought something special. “The Dandelion” traces an arc from childhood to her own motherhood and the challenge of releasing a child.

She remembers in “Beyond” launching out in life, parting from Mom to go to art school. She discovers the adult challenge of halting “the ticker tape of life’s chatter.” Paintings figures in several poems, one by Bouguereau, another by Hopper, and a third by Rodin, The Kiss. While the mother notices the man’s hand on the woman’s hip, the child is focused on a caterpillar!

The most poignant of the poems describe moments as Giantonio walks with both parents and her brother toward their deaths. Presence with each of them recalls the past, whether her “teenage shitshow” with her father or her first smoke with her brother, dying of “damaged lungs.” Most striking is the moment shared at her mother’s vanity bench. Her mother gives her a string of pearls, a gift from Polly and her father. Then she looks at her “head of chemo fuzz,” decides she needs some red lipstick, and then asks Polly to use this for her viewing.

Some poems capture the contemporary realities we face. What climate change will mean for our grandchildren. Isolating together during Covid. In another, we hear the virus’ chilling prophecy: I am a virus that will mutate and survive.

Yet life’s harsh realities fail to overshadow the everyday wonders of owls, “October’s Confetti,” “Winter Thaw,” and the “Peony.” Giantonio captures the preciousness of our lives including our rebellions and mistakes, the hard and sacred work of accompanying the dying, and the appearances of beauty that points to “something more” in our lives. This debut collection features the mature insight of one who reflects deeply on her life, her family, and her place.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers Program.

Review: Nature Poems to See By

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Cover image of "Nature Poems to See By" by Julian Peters

Nature Poems to See By

Nature Poems to See By, Julian Peters. Plough Publishing (ISBN: 9781636081748) 2026.

Summary: An anthology of great nature poems, organized by seasons and graphically interpreted.

Graphic works have rendered original stories in striking fashion for a new generation. And they have brought to life old stories in fresh ways. But can this work in the world of poetry, with its rich, dense, and often metaphorical use of language? This work, by comic artist Julian Peters, answered this question for me with a resounding yes. This is his second foray into this territory, having published Poems to See By in 2020.

As is obvious from these titles, Peters believes poetry is a means by which we see the world. He also believes poetry is a means by which we see ourselves and even greater realities than those we see with only our eyes. And he employs graphic art to aid us in the seeing.

This anthology collects twenty-four poems, including many familiar ones around the theme of nature. It opens with Langston Hughes poem, “Daybreak in Alabama, evoking both the red clay landscape of Alabama, and “the dream” of races reconciled. It closes with Gerard Manley Hopkins “God’s Grandeur,” concluding with a striking image of the final lines: 

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
     World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

There are six poems for each of the seasons of the year.

“Summer” includes an imaginative rendering of the rich imagery in William Blake’s “And Did Those Feet in Ancient Time” and an apocalyptic rendering of Gwendolyn Brook’s haunting “Truth.”

“Autumn” opens in a portrayal of Sylvia Plath’s proliferating “Mushrooms” and includes Emily Dickinson’s “There Came a Wind Like a Bugle” which eerily evoked reminders of a recent windstorm. Peters vividly renders “The Voice of God” which eludes all human pretensions to come in the small and the ordinary.

“Winter” includes a striking black and white rendering of Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” Then he follows by a monochrome rendering of Stevie Smith’s “Not Waving but Drowning,” with the concluding lines “I was much too far out all my life/And not waving but drowning.”

Finally, we come to “Spring,” opening with e. e. cummings “I Thank You God for Most This Amazing.” Also, this collection includes an op art portrayal of William Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.” I felt like I was back in the Sixties!

But some might object to the substitution of the artist’s imagination for one’s own engagement with the text. To address this, the text of each poem follows its graphic rendering. However, I personally found the graphic images encouraged me to pause and ponder the phrasing of each poem that a textual reading alone might gloss over. I found myself wondering why the artist chose particular ways of rendering. This both illuminated and highlighted the ways I was “seeing” the poem.

In conclusion, Julian Peters has created a wonderful doorway into poetry for those new to this world. Likewise, his renderings help us “see” old favorites in a new way. This was a delight to the eye and the eyes of my heart.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

The Weekly Wrap: November 2-8

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woman in white crew neck t shirt in a bookstore wrapping books
Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

The Weekly Wrap: November 2-8

Writing for AI

One of the articles I feature this week highlights one writer’s realization that those of us still writing may not only use AI to write but are likely writing for AI.

I know this to be true. My blog software tells me where people are referred from who don’t come directly to my site. On a near daily basis, people visit from ChatGPT and other AI large language models. That tells me that these LLMs regularly “scrape” my website and include it as a source in their answers. I find the text of these answers often reflect the source website. Often, that is all someone will read. I am writing for AI whether I wish to or not. In fact, various AI programs may be among my most dedicated “readers.” But perhaps I flatter myself!

How do I feel about that? Resigned is probably the best word I can think of. It’s one of the prices of posting material on the internet. I like it when it translates into people coming to my website. But I suspect 5-10 don’t for each who does.

The article writer explores how to leverage writing for AI. But I don’t think I want to devote too much energy to figuring out how to woo that black box. I pay attention to SEO and readability. However the writer mentioned one idea about writing that caught my attention. The material AI trains on shapes its “character.” I hope the ethos of goodness, truth, and beauty in books I’ve sought to put forward has at least some marginal effect. At very least I hope for this with a few of my human readers. If nothing else, it has for me.

Five Articles Worth Reading

So, the article to which I’ve been referring is “Baby Shoggoth Is Listening” by Dan Kagan-Kans, writing for The American Scholar. He does make me wonder if most human writing, even books, may be mediated through AI in the reading experience of most people. Tell me what you think.

Conservatives have been busy reasserting their vision of traditional masculinity. Things like empathy, vulnerability, and asking for help are out. They are too feminine. Leah Libresco Sargeant, a thoughtful conservative writer pushes back on this trend in a new book, reviewed in “A Conservative Rejoinder to the Manosphere.”

Among many readers I interact with, historical fiction is more popular than history. However, the question arises of how true the fiction is to history. In “Emma Donoghue on Populating Historical Fiction,” the writer explores these questions.

Then, in “At the Heart of Don Quixote,” James Como identifies a storytelling device that we may miss and that is important to the narrative.

Finally, NY Times critic A.O. Scott says “When I’m Sick of Doomscrolling, I Turn to This Poem.” He even reads it for us!

Quote of the Week

Albert Camus was born November 7, 1913. This quote underscores A. O. Scott’s point:

“We have art in order not to die of life.”

Miscellaneous Musings

A. O. Scott is not the only one who reads poetry online. Every Wednesday is “Bob on Poetry” day at my Facebook Page. Recording poetry is a great way to get it into one’s life. you rarely get it “right” in one “take.” One has to think about meaning, phrasing, rhythm and rhyme. I suspect like many things I do online, I profit as much or more than others!

I learned this week that Thriftbooks now has a special deal for AARP members. If you are in the over 50 crowd and a member, head over to their “Special Offer for AARP Members” and save 5% extra when you buy two or more books.

I’m reading Marce Catlett: The Force of a Story, Wendell Berry’s latest Port William novel. I hope Mr. Berry is with us a good while yet. But the book has a valedictory feel to it, as if Berry is speaking through grandson Andy Catlett, now old himself, about what was achieved for a time in the Port William membership, and what has been sadly lost.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: John U. Bacon, The Gales of November

Tuesday: A. C. Seiple, The Sacred Art of Slowing Down

Wednesday: Terry Pratchett, The Light Fantastic

Thursday: Rebecca Grabill, illustrated by Isabella Grott, One Star, Three Kings

Friday: Angie Ward, Beyond Church and Parachurch

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap for November 2-8.

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page

Review: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight with The Pearl and Sir Orfeo

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Cover image of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" translated by J.R.R. Tolkien

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight with Pearl and Sir Orfeo, Anonymous, translated by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien. William Morrow (ISBN: 9780358724209) 2021 (first published 1975).

Summary: Tolkien’s translation of three 14th century poems, retaining rhyme, meter and alliterative schema.

You may not realize it, but the various stories of Middle Earth were not the only works of J.R.R. Tolkien. He also translated into modern English three fourteenth century poems, including an edition of the Arthurian poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. He initially collaborated with E.V. Gordon on an edition in 1925. Tolkien also worked on translations of Pearl and Sir Orfeo. However, these were unpublished at his death, and the first to be published with the editorial work of Christopher Tolkien. This is a new edition of that work.

Sir Gawain is probably the most familiar. A Green Knight appears before the round table issuing a challenge, which Arthur accepts but then Gawain accepts to spare his king. The challenge is to strike a blow at the knight’s neck. But Gawain must then seek out the knight, appearing the following New Year’s Day, and allow the knight to do the same. Gawain beheads the knight, who then picks up his head, walks off, holding Gawain to his pledge. Most of the poem is Gawain’s quest to find the knight. By Christmas Eve, he still hasn’t found the knight but arrives at a castle where he can attend mass and stay over Christmas, since the Green Knight lives just two miles away. Gawain’s encounter with the Knight is a kind of anti-climax, the real trial is with the lady of the castle.

Pearl represents an allegory of the loss of what is precious, a young man’s quest, which reminds one of Pilgrim’s Progress where the quest for the Pearl, personified as a maiden takes on a spiritual character of repentance and salvation.

Sir Orfeo is another quest poem in which Sir Orfeo loses his wife Heurodis to a fairy king. He seeks her for many years in the forest where she was last seen. Finally, he spots her and by disguise, finds his way to the king’s court. But to win her and then to be restored to his own throne!

One of the distinctions of Tolkien’s translations is that he retains the meter, rhyme, and alliterative scheme of the original. An appendix on verse forms explains this. I have not read any other edition of these works so I cannot assess how successful Tolkien was. However, I can say that the translation flows and never bogs down the stories of these poems.

This edition also includes the text of the “W.P. Ker Memorial Lecture on Sir Gawain.” The lecture is helpful in appreciating the tension between courtly manners and the perfection of character with which Sir Gawain struggles.

All three poems concern quests. A common theme is that the formation of the character of the questor through the decisions he makes is perhaps even more significant than the object of the quest. We may think we are shaping our life quest when in fact it is shaping us.

The three poems are all treasures I am glad to have found. The translation and editing of the Tolkiens, father and son, is a bonus!

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Thanks for visiting Bob on Books.  I appreciate that you spent time here. Feel to “look around” – see the tabs at the top of the website, and the right hand column. And use the buttons below to share this post. Blessings! [Adapted from Enough Light, a blog I follow.]

Review: Love’s Immensity

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Cover image of "Love's Immensity" by Scott Cairns

Love’s Immensity, Scott Cairns. Paraclete Press (ISBN: 9781640605886) 2020 (first published in 2007).

Summary: Reflections and prayers of mystics from St. Paul to Julian of Norwich translated and rendered in verse.

At a student leadership conference many years ago, one of our speakers made the distinction between knowing about God and knowing God. Yet I found as I went on in the Christian life that we were not always at ease with the latter. There was a great fear of subjectivity and “mysticism” was looked at askance. We wanted to “rightly handle” scripture, be “sound” in doctrine.

Yet, rather than choose one pole of this tension, I discovered that living in it was the better place to be. Amid reading great theology, I would find myself caught up in wonder, awe, and love. In both worship and witness, I found myself suddenly in the grip of fresh insight into the truth, the rightness of Christian belief. It was a bringing together of mind and heart in a knowing, passionate, and at times, beyond knowing experience of the love and greatness of God.

It was this that poet Scott Cairns discovered as he meditated upon, translated, and set in verse the writings and prayers of mystics from St. Paul to Julian of Norwich. In particular, he writes of noetic prayer. He found the idea of nous untranslatable. The best he could come up with is “the intellective aptitude of the heart.” However, Cairns does not spend much time on this, preferring to show through our encounter with these mystics, inviting us to join them. In Prologue, by the anonymous author of The Cloud of Unknowing, he asks us “to read slowly and thoroughly, tasting each word’s trouble.” And such an approach is wise in reading this profound collection.

Firstly, in so many of the works, the paradox of knowing the unknown is evident. An example is Nicholas of Cusa’s Within the Cloud. He writes:

"...For there, beyond all
reason, and above every bold ascent
--even there, where I glimpse that
with every intellect judges to be
most distant from truth, there 
You bide, my God, who remain
our absolute necessity."

To encounter God in this way, according to Meister Eckhart in The Prayer of a Heart Detached is to be both detached and one with God. One becomes detached from asking and wanting. Rather prayer is simply dwelling in the peace and uniformity with God.

Yet the encounter with God is not passionless, devoid of feeling. In The Depth of His Touch, Saint Claire of Assisi speaks of loving and touching God. God is one who excels in power, generosity, beauty, tender love, and gracious courtesy. It is love that catches her in an embrace, lays precious stones upon her breast and pearls upon her ears. The language is romantic, nearly erotic, and yet she speaks of chastity, purity, virginity. Ultimately, one senses that such a holy love is beyond eros.

Similarly, Saint John of the Cross’s famous Dark Night reads as if it were a lover’s tryst. First, he steals away unobserved by a household at rest. Then, unseeing in the darkness, “heartlight” guides him. The Beloved’s embrace transforms him. Finally, he swoon’s upon the Beloved’s breast, releasing all his burdens.” We find here an intimacy greater than any sexual union.

Origen, in All in All, indeed, speaks of consummation. In this case, it is the promised restoration of all things, in which we are caught up in the “All in All.” Finally, Saint Basil the Great, in Illumination reminds us that this is only possible through the Spirit. Only by the Spirit is the invisible manifest, the inexpressible beauty glimpsed.

But Cairns offers us so much more. In all, he includes thirty-seven saints. The translations rendered in verse enable us to meditate phrase by phrase. This is love poetry on a whole different level. I will treasure it!

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Finally, thanks for visiting Bob on Books. People aren’t reading blogs like they used to, so I appreciate that you spent time here. Feel to “look around” – see the tabs at the top of the website, and the right hand column. And use the buttons below to share this post. Blessings! [Adapted from Enough Light, a blog I follow.]

Review: An Incremental Life

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Cover image of "An Incremental Life" by Luci Shaw

An Incremental Life, Luci Shaw. Paraclete Press (ISBN: 9781640609792) 2025.

Summary: Poems celebrating the daily moments offering glimpses of joy, growth, insight, and the quiet presence of God.

There are an abundance of ordinary moments between the “life events” we post on social media profiles, and celebrate with family colleagues, and friends. Much of the substance of our lives is found in the ordinary. Noticed and meditated upon, these become a rich tapestry that we call a life. But it is also in these moments that growth in character, and increasing “God-likeness” occurs.

Luci Shaw’s latest collection of poetry, An Incremental Life invites the reader into Shaw’s own practice of noticing and meditating upon the “moments” or “increments in her life. Reading a poem aloud with one’s eggs at breakfast is “Nutriment” for the ears, the voice, and the mind. Polishing a napkin ring with the initials of her father recalls his embrace, smell, and love for God. A return visit to the Grand Canyon reminds her of the Colorado River’s once raging torrent, now reduced to a trickle by “our consumer generation.” In “Estuary,” Shaw and her husband visit a newly formed tidal estuary. Then she reflects on the tides that have poured in and out of their shared lives. She describes “our old eyes viewing a celestial transaction as if for the first time.”

Many of her poems are filled with observations from the natural world. In “Garden Work” she considers how garden work continues when her work for the day is done. Thus, it is a blessing which may fill our lives if we recognize and receive it. “Ambush of the Heart” captures how both simply beauties and unearthed memories may ambush our hearts with wonder. In “Refresh,” a barefoot walk in the grass becomes an immersive experience of the blessing of God.

Other poems mark passages of seasons and the advance of years. “Coda or End-of-Summer Blues” reflects on hoped-for summer plans unfulfilled, regrets failure in the vegetable garden and the life of prayer, rejoices in the flourishing of love and family, and God who ever waits for our attention. She likens herself in one poem to an old cardigan, somewhat threadbare. She acknowledges her want of vigor, sapped of energy by pain and her fights against it. Finally, she fastens it to the shoulder of God. Despite her vibrant faith, in “Mortality” she asks (as have many of us), “Tell me, how may I delay my dying?”

As in other collections, some of her poetry is on the making of poetry, including “How It Happens.” She writes of her aspiration to pen “Edible Words” “rinsing away/falsehood and injury.” She describes how “The New Poem” takes shape through writing and revision as she will “smooth stuttering rhythms.” And then comes time to “blow it a fond, farewell kiss.”

Shaw captures how, as we age, we may both live in the present moment, and re-live the events of our lives, bringing those increments together into a richer synthesis. Our failings and frailties, increasing with the years, may also bring increasing awareness of the presence of the One on whom we depend. And somehow, in all of this, there is the hope of incrementally growing into God’s purposes, even in the face of our own mortality.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.