Review: Love & Other Things

[Stacie16]

Review: Love & Other Things by Michael Tavon

Love & Other Things, a collection of lyrics and poetry, has a steady rhythm throughout, mixing one writer's life experiences with his sense of musicality. Readers will have a sense of flowing from one rhyming phrase to the next as in the continuous looping of a song: "Something like diamonds in the dark, your beauty is resilient-To the Gods up high, your spirit is brilliant" (from About Her). The first section of the book, Love, is where Tavon's writing shines, particularly in his song lyrics. My favorite in the collection was the song Angel - "He's humble to speak-Of the dream of he and she-He can't believe-He can fly without her wings-The wind is her voice-And he loves to hear her sings-The joy that she's rings." There is a beauty to both the sound Tavon has created and the way he has fashioned the lyrics visually on the page - many poems being concrete or acrostic in nature.

The second half of the book, Other Things, deals with heavier themes: heartbreak, death, pain and loss, racism. Perhaps it is because they were harder to read that they should be read even closer, because with love must indeed come other things too. Tavon ends the collection with the biggest questions in life: "Why am I here-What's my purpose", and will cause readers to close the collection with the realization that, "Life is fragile, time is sensitive-And often unappreciated" (from Life is Precious). I appreciated the experience of reading this collection, and hope that Tavon records his lyrics so that readers can not only see his poems, but also hear them sung out loud.

[DennisK]

Thanks for the review, Stacie. I haven't read very much poetry for quite some time, but your description perked my interest. Recently, I came across shallow, callused expressions regarding spouses which I found surprising and somewhat disappointing. I'm in the mood for some sanity. I'm loading it from Amazon into Ipad.