4 out of 4 stars
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Sometimes poetry collections feel like a reverse Russian roulette where only one good book is loaded into a chamber with countless mediocre, disappointing ones. While reading through a less-than-stellar poetry book is far less fatal than a gunshot to the head, it doesn't always feel that way while slogging through it. So when a great poetry book finally comes along, it's like an oasis in the desert! As far as oases go, Lyrics From My Soul (Volume 1) by Sobreta Lady Breezee Harris is a respite for both the mind and the Christian spirit.
Lyrics From My Soul (Volume 1) is a collection of nineteen poems for Christians. Her pieces cover a wide range of feelings and thoughts that Christians deal with regularly: praising God, the trials and tribulations of keeping Him close, struggling with faith during hard times, and gratefulness to God for everything in our lives. Lady Breezee (Sobreta's poet pseudonym) isn't afraid to show that she's human too, revealing her struggles with faith from time to time, and pointing out that it's sometimes easy for even her to forget when times are tough just how much has already been given to her.
As for the poetry itself, it's spectacular. From the very first poem, "What Is Poetry For Me?", I was hooked. This poem, paired with "My Story", made for a perfect introduction to the collection. The two essentially created an introduction for the book, explaining that Lady Breezee uses her poetry to praise God and showing readers that life hasn't always been easy for her. From there, she launches into the other various themes of the book just as candidly. Her poetry is mostly free verse, but she does a terrific job with rhythm. Rhyme is the same: a poem may start off with alternating end rhymes and then swap to multiple lines in a row rhyming before giving up rhyme entirely. My favorite line of the collection is a great example: "Some say/Money is funny, change is strange/No cents in my pocket/No sense to call on His Name".
Lady Breezee also does a great job of incorporating scripture and various things widely known to Christians in her work. In "That's Love", she manages to poetically retell the famous "Love is patient, Love is kind..." portion of 1 Corinthians 13. "I Was Not Built to Break" starts with "Luke 10:19 tells me/That God has given me the authority/To tread on serpents and scorpions". I appreciated coming across these because it was interesting finding things I already recognized as a Christian in a book of poetry from a poet I'd never heard of before. It also shows that Lady Breezee isn't the type of person who has Christian thoughts without the knowledge to back it up.
Have you ever started reading or watching something and you liked the beginning so much you instantly became a fan? Then, you were so invested in it, you were nervous you'd find something you didn't like? That's what happened to me after enjoying Lady Breezee's first poem so much. After each poem, I breathed in a sigh of relief that the collection was still superb. Unfortunately, that didn't wasn't able to last throughout the entire book. I ran across a few grammatical errors, and one poem specifically called itself a haiku when it wasn't at all. And while I never came across a poem I didn't like, there were a handful of lines or stanzas that could've been tightened up just a bit.
Lyrics From My Soul (Volume 1) was a breath of fresh air in a world where so much poetry is made up of forced rhymes and awkward phrasing. I would absolutely recommend it to all Christians, not just those who enjoy poetry. Because Lady Breezee is clearly a spoken word poet at heart (she's been a "Spoken Word Artist since 2008"), her poetry often flows like lyrics. The whole time I was reading the book I was picturing her on a stage belting the words out in front of a bunch of Christians cheering "Amen!" every so often. Lady Breezee speaks of her love of God plainly without deep metaphors so anyone can understand her poetry. However, people who aren't Christian and don't care to read about people celebrating their Christian faith should stay far away as nearly every poem is wholly focused on Christianity. Lyrics From My Soul (Volume 1) is easily worthy of 4 out of 4 stars.
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Lyrics From My Soul
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