Title: Poetry to Challenge the Senses
Author: Donald R. Elix
Publisher: PageTurner Press and Media
ISBN: 979-8-88963-434-8
Pages:
Genre: Poetry
Reviewer: Ella Vincent
Hollywood Book Reviews
Poetry to Challenge the Senses is a collection of poems which present a visual array of images that will challenge the senses of readers. Author Donald R. Elix has written a book of poetry which will resonate with readers.
Poetry to Challenge the Senses has a variety of poems about various subjects. Many center on nature and the elements, like “Escape to Imagination”: “Our thoughts propel us across/boundaries of imagination to our dreamy season.” Elix also writes about the beauty of nature in the darkness in poems like “Blue Sunset”: “Majestic firs nestle in ebony satin cloaks for nocturnal hiding./Patches of brilliant blue embrace the last rays of day.”
Other poems like “Dedicated to You” feature the narrator writing about a loved one and wanting to commune with them in nature: “For without you and I to make it so/ Our love does not exist/ So come run through the clouds and rain with me.” Many of the poems touch on romantic themes, like “Ode to Molly”: “We gloried in our own love building/For we alone enjoyed our world.”
Elix’s writing is very evocative and presents beautiful imagery throughout the text. The title of the book is accurate, as the poems do challenge the senses. The writing is so vivid, readers can easily imagine themselves gazing at the fir trees in the woods or listening to a sea with crashing waves. In addition to the imagery, the themes of the poems are universal and unique at the same time. Even though there were poems about love and motherhood, the poems about the special bond between a narrator and their mother in poems like “Mother of Mine.” With so much negativity and sadness in many poems, Elix offers a refreshing change in his optimistic and hopeful poems that celebrate the beauty and wonder of the elements and love for family, friends, and partners.
The book would be best for fans of poetry, especially those who enjoy poems about nature. Fans of Walt Whitman and other classic poets that wrote about nature would appreciate the poems in Poetry to Challenge the Senses. This book would also be ideal for readers who want to read poetry about love. The book could be part of a poetry or nature-focused group.
Donald R. Elix has written a collection of poetry that is short, but will leave a long impact on readers.