Tanka-poetry reviews

Thanks to Lark Writes for giving me the inspiration to write short, poetic book reviews. Hers are called 'Haiku Reviews.' I'll make mine a little longer and call them tanka-poetry reviews. Similar to haikus, tanka poems are short, using only 31-syllables in the cadence pattern of 5, 7, 5, 7, 7. I call these reviews tanka-poetry but the books I am reviewing are not specifically poetry books.

 

 Musical Tables: Poems by Billy Collins 

Random House, 2022.

This new collection

is chock full of small poems --

My favorite kind.

Most are funny or poignant.

All made me laugh or smile.

 

Rating 4.5 out of 5 stars.

 

 

Banned Books: The World's Most Controversial Books, Past and Present

D.K. Publishing, 2022.

Title says it all --

banned books throughout the ages.

I've read almost half.

My favorite parts were quotes

by authors, impacts us all.

 

Rating 4 out of 5 stars.

 

 

The Goblin Market and Other Poems by Christina Rossetti

Macmillan Collector's Library, 2022, first published in 1862.

 

The foremost female

poet of her time. "Goblin

Market" is a weird

and ghoulish poem. So cool.

The others are not so good.

Rating 3 out of 5 stars.

 

Prairie Reunion by Barbara Scot

Riverhead Books, 1995.

A woman goes back

for bittersweet homecoming.

Tries to understand

why her father abandoned

family when she was young.

 

Rating 2 out of 5 stars.

 

 

The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories by Marina Keegan

Scribner, 2014.

 

Marina Keegan

Died days after her college

graduation. Sad

family and friends compiled

her stories for this book.

 

Rating 3 out of 5 stars.  

When I Found You by Catherine Ryan Hyde

Amazon Publishing, 2013.

Child buried alive.

Man rescues him, nick of time.

Then spends rest of life

rescuing the boy from more

disastrous decisions.

 

3 out of 5 stars.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

Duke Classics, 2012, originally published in 1920.

Debuting Poirot,

the famous Christie P.I.

Was death a murder?

Was it poison? Who did it?

We all know by end of book.

 

3.5 out of 5 stars.

 

 

-Anne