The Invisible God: Poems for Devotions by John J. Brugaletta Resource Publications, 2017 ISBN 978-1-5326-1848-2 The Invisible God contains a collection of over seventy-five poems arranged in seven sections. The subtitle, “poems for devotions,” suggests that these verses might inspire thoughtful meditation, and several of them are indeed thought-provoking, though I read each section in a single gulp. The poetry is well metered and much of it is rhymed, but the rhyme is never o

Old Man Walking by Almira Astudillo Gilles Moon Journal Press, © 1991 ISBN 0-9755795-5-X This collection of 26 poems spans twenty years of the poet's childhood and young adulthood in the Philippines. Many cataclysmic events occurred during this time in Gilles's life, and the poems explore her early impressions of poverty and social inequality, but not without a sense of nostalgia, for the poet expresses a sense of homesickness for her family and the simplicity of her nativ

Snapshots and Dances by Leslie Prosterman Garden District Press, © 2011 ISBN 978-1-931002-95-0 I can’t quite put my finger on just what I liked about this collection. It’s not my usual preferred style of poetry, and there were certainly some poems that “did nothing for me” so to speak, but there were many others that struck me, drew me in, and made me experience particular emotions as though I were myself a part of the scene. These poems are as the title implies “snapshots”

Thoughts I Left Behind Collected Poems by William H. Roetzheim Level 4 Press, Inc., © 2006 ISBN 0-9768001-0-1 This debut book of poetry by prize-winning poet William Roetzheim takes a look at life, death, and religion. The collection explores the themes of growing up and growing old. It contains over one hundred poems and is complemented by more than thirty illustrations. The book opens with a short poem that offers a warm and personal welcome to the reader as the poet inv

Sacred Voices: Women of Genesis Speak by Sherri Waas Shunfenthal In Sacred Voices, Sherri Waas Shunfenthal examines, through numerous poems, the thoughts, emotions, and actions of the women who inhabit the pages of the first book of the Pentateuch, fleshing out "the silence / between words." She writes also of the extrabiblical character Lilith, who has in this age become a sort of poster girl for the modern feminist movement. And, despite the title of the book, she also p

Seeded Puffs by Cherise Wyneken Dry Bones Press, Inc., © 2000 Seeded Puffs contains approximately 100 poems, an impressive number for any verse collection. Wyneken makes masterful use of alliteration, anaphora, and other rhetorical devices. The imagery is well-formed and often original, but the author relies on this particular poetic device rather heavily. After much use, imagery—no matter how well-drawn—eventually ceases to have an impact. As a reader, I look for poe

A Parable of Women: Poems by Philip C. Kolin Yazoo River Press, © 2009 ISBN 0-9723224-5-0 A Parable of Women offers up the poetic perspectives of both modern and ancient women, largely unnamed. These are women who persevere, wrestling with the human pangs of loneliness, betrayal, longing, lust, and loss. Written in free verse, these poems make ample use of alliteration. Occasionally I wished for more cadence, to be swept up into the rhythm of the poetry, but the volume alway

Over the years, numerous poets have sent me complimentary copies of their poetry chapbooks for my reading enjoyment. This blog post highlights ten of those collections. For more chapbook reviews, see my blog article titled "Best of the Small Press." Bearable Weight by Michael Cleary CW Books, © 2011, ISBN 978-1-936370-51-1 Michael Cleary's Bearable Weight contains frequent allusions to religious life or the Bible in emotionally fraught settings and paints a sometimes bleak

As editor of Ancient Paths literary magazine, I have received numerous complimentary copies of poetry books over the years. Sometimes these collections are published as chapbooks (the term publishers give to a small paperback booklet containing poems or fiction) and sometimes as trade paperbacks (a publishing term that refers to any book with a flexible cardstock cover that is larger than the standard mass market paperback). They are usually published by either a small press

In The Geography of Prayer (Skysong Press, 1999), Donna Farley presents a collection of poems that range from the invitingly accessible to the almost-esoteric, from the charmingly sentimental to the deeply pensive. The nineteen works in this chapbook are divided into five sections centered around the vital components of prayer: meditation, confession, intercession, supplication, and praise. Each poem is well placed in an appropriate section. The printing is simple yet attra

In today’s blog post, I’d like to introduce you to another Ancient Paths poet: Barry W. North. After retiring from his career as a refrigeration mechanic, Barry began to commit more time to his writing, and he won the 2010 A. E. Coppard Prize for Fiction as well as an Honorable Mention in the 2011 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards. He is the author of Terminally Human, a compilation of short poems. Six of Barry’s poems have previously appeared in the pages of Ancient Paths: “Who

Olivia Diamond was born in Chicago and lived most of her life in Illinois until moving to a log home in the mountains of northwest Montana, twenty-five miles from the nearest town. There she fishes, enjoys nature, and writes. She is the author of several novels and collections of poetry. Some years ago, Olivia shared with me her collection Women at the Well (1stBooks, © 2001, ISBN 0-75962-882-3), which is narrated through the voices of several Biblical women, from Eve to Dam

During my twenty years as editor and publisher of Ancient Paths literary magazine, several thousand poems have come across my desk for consideration. It was in this manner that I discovered a delightful, but surprisingly little-known, modern poet: Ida Fasel. Ida died in 2012, at the age of 102, after publishing her sixteenth book, a collection of poems and essays inspired by John Milton’s Paradise Lost. The daughter of Russian immigrants, Ida started writing as a young ch