Sunday, April 27, 2014
Friday, April 25, 2014
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Monday, April 21, 2014
I got a review for Gaia's Beings: Poems Inspired by Nature on Online Book Club.
See the whole review here.
http://forums.onlinebookclub.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=18821
Review excerpt:
Poet Lucille Clifton once said that “poetry began when somebody walked off of a savanna or out of a cave and looked up at the sky with wonder and said, “Ahhh.” That was the first poem.” In her book Gaia’s Beings: Poems Inspired by Nature, Hayley Shaver turns that primeval, nature-inspired “Ahhh” into short verses which express awe, wonder, or just simple observations of things in the natural world.
In Greek mythology, Gaia was the personification of earth, one of the Greek primordial deities. She was the mother of all; the creator and giver of birth to the earth and the universe. “Gaia’s beings,” therefore, are her creations – the subjects about which the author writes. This motif is carried into the poems themselves, as references to Greek mythology are found in at least 14 of them: “The unicorn is/As graceful as Aphrodite/As wise as Medea” (Unicorn); sharks were given “Speed stolen from Nike’s strides” (Sharks); emeralds contain “The depth of Athena/And the fire of Prometheus” (Emerald); summer’s “diadem is sunlight, woven by the hand/of Arachne herself” (Summer). Mentioned also are Venus, Athena, Poseidon, Persephone, the River Styx, and Gaia herself.
The titles of the poems leave no question as to their respective subjects. Examples are Night, Dawn, Spider Web, Apples, Otters, Penguin, Spring, Rain Swollen Clouds. You get the picture. The book contains a total of 57 poems, and they are all very short – from only ten words (Lava, Beaver) to about 21 lines (Perfect Rose).
Many of the poems are simply platforms to present aspects of nature metaphorically. The subject of the poem (which is invariably the title) is mentioned in the first line, as in “(subject) is (metaphor).” Some examples are:
“Sod is chocolate, softened/By the hand of the sun.” (Simply Sod)
“Dawn is a beautiful finger painting.” (Dawn)
“Spring is a maiden in all her glory.” (Spring)
“Moon is a pale woman/Plump and kind.” (Moon)
. . . some metaphors are quite good and original: Mist is described as “A lace curtain misplaced” (Mist); a spider web is “An ornament/For a lonely pail” (Spider Web); a daffodil is a “Fresh maid wearing/A newly pressed/Dress of sunbeams” (Daffodil); a penguin is described as “Twirling as if/He is dancing/With a mermaid/Only he can see” (Penguin). These poems are very simple, and present nature as a pure, ideal, and sometimes mysterious thing. Some poetry is cryptic and inaccessible, but these are just the opposite. They are easy to read; there are no hidden meanings, no abstruse or ambiguous speech.
. . . One of my favorite poems is Dawn:
“Dawn is a beautiful finger painting.
She is some beginning artist’s
Happy mistake,
A masterpiece that cannot be duplicated.”
See the whole review here.
http://forums.onlinebookclub.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=18821
Review excerpt:
Poet Lucille Clifton once said that “poetry began when somebody walked off of a savanna or out of a cave and looked up at the sky with wonder and said, “Ahhh.” That was the first poem.” In her book Gaia’s Beings: Poems Inspired by Nature, Hayley Shaver turns that primeval, nature-inspired “Ahhh” into short verses which express awe, wonder, or just simple observations of things in the natural world.
In Greek mythology, Gaia was the personification of earth, one of the Greek primordial deities. She was the mother of all; the creator and giver of birth to the earth and the universe. “Gaia’s beings,” therefore, are her creations – the subjects about which the author writes. This motif is carried into the poems themselves, as references to Greek mythology are found in at least 14 of them: “The unicorn is/As graceful as Aphrodite/As wise as Medea” (Unicorn); sharks were given “Speed stolen from Nike’s strides” (Sharks); emeralds contain “The depth of Athena/And the fire of Prometheus” (Emerald); summer’s “diadem is sunlight, woven by the hand/of Arachne herself” (Summer). Mentioned also are Venus, Athena, Poseidon, Persephone, the River Styx, and Gaia herself.
The titles of the poems leave no question as to their respective subjects. Examples are Night, Dawn, Spider Web, Apples, Otters, Penguin, Spring, Rain Swollen Clouds. You get the picture. The book contains a total of 57 poems, and they are all very short – from only ten words (Lava, Beaver) to about 21 lines (Perfect Rose).
Many of the poems are simply platforms to present aspects of nature metaphorically. The subject of the poem (which is invariably the title) is mentioned in the first line, as in “(subject) is (metaphor).” Some examples are:
“Sod is chocolate, softened/By the hand of the sun.” (Simply Sod)
“Dawn is a beautiful finger painting.” (Dawn)
“Spring is a maiden in all her glory.” (Spring)
“Moon is a pale woman/Plump and kind.” (Moon)
. . . some metaphors are quite good and original: Mist is described as “A lace curtain misplaced” (Mist); a spider web is “An ornament/For a lonely pail” (Spider Web); a daffodil is a “Fresh maid wearing/A newly pressed/Dress of sunbeams” (Daffodil); a penguin is described as “Twirling as if/He is dancing/With a mermaid/Only he can see” (Penguin). These poems are very simple, and present nature as a pure, ideal, and sometimes mysterious thing. Some poetry is cryptic and inaccessible, but these are just the opposite. They are easy to read; there are no hidden meanings, no abstruse or ambiguous speech.
. . . One of my favorite poems is Dawn:
“Dawn is a beautiful finger painting.
She is some beginning artist’s
Happy mistake,
A masterpiece that cannot be duplicated.”
Saturday, April 19, 2014
Cathedral
I sing a hymn at the cathedral of the wilds,
My hymn drifting up
To mix with clouds and the stars,
Making its way to eternity.
excerpt from my book Gaia's Beings: Poems Inspired by Nature
see more poems here:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/425257
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