4 out of 4 stars
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He only wanted to survive, many times crying out for help from the depths of condemnation, pain and anxiety. Still, it was not easy until he fell in love with words. The Radical Dreams chronicles Samuel Guest’s journey through feelings of loss, gut-wrenching suffering onto the path of healing and moments of romance. The poem Winter Tempest brings out the anxiety and turmoil captured a lot in most of the poems in the first part of the book. The second part focuses mostly on healing while the third contains bits of romance.
I loved reading The Radical Dreams mostly because of the poet’s candidness in displaying his emotions. Samuel Guest writes about the painful, difficult emotions that many people fight so hard to conceal and puts it out there for inspiration. His bravery is praiseworthy. The collection contains a lot of raw emotions frankly presented in Guest’s work. The poem Condemned is one of the compositions that is a reflection of Guest’s sentiments.
In many ways, I believe writing poetry is therapeutic and this is brought out in this collection of poems. Guest deals with emotions by creating thought-provoking poetry that really helped me process my own emotions. Probably one of my greatest takeaway in reading The Radical Dreams by Samuel Guest is that emotions of any kind be it anger, confusion or frustration require to be faced and dealt with so as to bring out hope and growth.
Another important aspect of the poems contained in the book was their ability to evoke emotions. I fell and rose with the poet’s pace, in many cases empathizing, feeling angry alongside the author and finally identifying the rays of hope that shimmered towards the end. The writing style is graphic, sometimes fast and other times slow depending on each scene that the poet wished to create.
I also liked that many poems contained originality and common clichés were avoided. Guest’s outlook is unique. Much of the composition of the poems is mainly derived from the poet’s own experiences in life. His struggles and focus on achieving what he intends to achieve are well-crafted throughout. The end is bright and along the way, the poet starts to heal through his love for words.
One thing that I did not like was the brevity in detail in many of the poems. Still, this was compensated by the powerful selection of words that were used.
The book left me with a lot to think about and work through. Most importantly, it challenged me to audacious with my dreams and not to quit. One of the poems that really highlights this message is The Endless Road. I rate The Radical Dreams 4 out of 4 stars.
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The Radical Dreams
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