Review of River of Stars

[Melisa Jane]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "River of Stars" by William K. Leutz.]

---

3 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

Our interactions with people, objects, or nature most of the time create feelings that cannot be adequately expressed by normal prose writings. Poets, however, can express these feelings more efficiently so that the readers can have the same feelings the poet had. Rivers of Stars by William K. Leutz is a collection of around 64 poems that cover the author's interactions, feelings, and thoughts.

As mentioned above, this book has 64 poems. They are categorized into four sections. In this review, I'll only summarize two sections. The first section, Rhythms, has 20 poems. These poems cover a wide range of topics. For instance, the first poem, Cycles, is about a lake. The second section, Myths, contains 14 poems. Although they also cover a range of topics, they are mostly about the author's thoughts and opinions. For instance, there's a poem titled, "Youth's Passage." Here, the poet narrates about youthful experiences and how adulthood changes them.

I liked several things about this book. First, most of the poems were in a narrative form. This made them read like a short story. I particularly liked a poem titled, "Walking with Granddad." In this poem, the author used imagery to bring everything into context. Reading it brought back memories from my childhood. Second, most of the poems were straightforward. For example, the second poem narrates about the beach where the persona's entire family used to visit until they started staying there. The vocabulary is simple, and the storyline is very entertaining. Third, I liked that, through this book, the author has kept the memory of his sister, Barbara, alive. Since I didn't find any grammatical errors while reading, this book was exceptionally edited.

Although this is a brilliant book, there are a few things I didn't like about it. First, I don't understand how the poems were categorized. For example, at first, I thought the first category, Rhythms, contains rhythmic poems. I was disappointed when I found out that some of these poems don't have rhythms at all. This will not only confuse but also disappoint most readers. Second, some poems were very hard to comprehend. Even after reading them more than thrice, I still couldn't understand them. For example, I couldn't understand the poem titled, "Beyond the Fields We Know."

In conclusion, this was a brilliant book with several poems covering a wide range of topics. I rate it 3 out of 4 stars. I deducted one star because I didn't understand some of the poems. Since most of the poems were about nature, I recommend this book to anyone who loves poems on this topic. Those who like well-structured books might not enjoy it.

******
River of Stars
View: on Bookshelves

[Chiwelite O]

I think this will make a good read for me. I am a lover of poetry and this may be the right one for me. Thank you for your beautiful review!

[Ivvie Ivanova]

Sounds like a lovely book to read and think about life and the world around us. I imagine it could bring quite the nostalgia wave.

[Pearl Thomas]

Great review! I totally admire the art of poetry. Although some poems that are hard to comprehend might seem pretentious, but I like some cryptic poems that get me thinking.

[Snigdha Pandey]

This book has a lovely name. I would have probably picked it up as soon as I saw it in a bookstore because of its name and cover alone. I like reading poetry. I think poems are very subjective and everyone interprets in their own ways. I think it's okay even if some of them don't make sense to me. I'll like to check this book out. Thanks for your review.

[Astral Magi]

I love poetry. A pity that some of the poems are incomprehensible. Thank you for a great review.

[Elisa Joy Ocasla]

I am always keen on perusing the collection of poetry. This one suits me, and I’ll surely enjoy reading its symbolic lines.