Book title: Dark Soul of the Millennium

Publisher: World Audience

ISBN: 978-1-934209-41-7

Mel Waldman Ph.D. is an American psychologist at the Centre for Modern Psychoanalytic Studies. He is a writer of stories in numerous magazines and literary reviews. He is a poet singer/songwriter and has also written plays. He won the Literary Gradiva Award in psychoanalysis. He was also nominated for a Pushcart Prize in literature. He has given poetry and prose readings and has appeared on national TV and cable TV. He is a member of Mystery Writers America, Private Eye Writers of America , American Mensa and the American Psychological Association. He is currently working on a mystery novel.

In this collection of plays and poems by Mel Waldman he delves into the depths of the mind. His work is intense and really makes you think and consider.  Many of the poems relate to being Jewish and faith, the Holocaust and 9/11.

It is an excellent collection, beautiful and evocative, exploring many avenues of our lives. It helps put into words the things the man in the street is not able to express and they are able to give comfort from the knowledge that we are all in this together. He tells us how to value love and freedom over evil. Wonderful.

There are poignant reminders of the Holocaust which are evocative of a time in history no-one should ever be allowed to forget.  Strong, meaningful phrases, well constructed, tell us of things inhuman but which humans did actually perpetrate. We feel the suffering which must have been unimaginable, it cries out throughout the author’s poems so that you actually feel the pain in your own heart.  The Holocaust is a subject many people avoid writing about but Mel is not afraid to put his feelings and thoughts into words and poems in such an unforgettable way.

The structure of his poems is simple but that is the thing that makes it all work, you want to read certain lines over and over again.

You have to put your own interpretation into his plays but once again they are easy to read  All human life is in this book and Mel Waldman tries to discover how our minds can lead us on into areas which sometimes are not good places to go.

The Ring -  short play.   Is all about a couple in love about to get engaged in a special place but she is a ghost who died just before the proposal many years before. I feel it tells us not to waste time and to seize the moment.

The Couple -  short play is about an unmarried, middle aged couple in the man’s apartment.  The man feels trapped into love because she says she loves him forever and he sees it as a confession thereby implying sin. However he can’t let her go and they go on together beginning to understand each other again. The poem is telling us we may be scared of loving too much but cannot live without each other - I think.

Love is My Voice - this poem speaks of the collapse of the towers in 9/11.an easy one to read but unbearable as loved ones are speaking their goodbyes on cell phones before the fire engulfs them or they are crushed.

A line which says it all is “and finds me in a different place” we can only hope and pray they did.

On That Day - another evocative poem about 9/11. so well written. Mel puts into words how ordinary people felt that dreadful, evil day. Although we are told to look to the future, it is nearly impossible to erase that time and all that unimaginable horror, you feel you want to go there and stand and absorb. To be free again and able to move on.

A Sea of Trauma - Mel has written this poem about the survivors flocking to him in their trauma , hating him because why should he be the one able to help them? He identifies with their pain and feels he will empower himself if he can empower them with his therapy. Excellent.

Dancing With Chaos a poem about Grand Central Station and its ghosts. Remembering that awful day when they’d travelled downtown oblivious of their destiny- when the white dust fell. A very evocative poem about 9/11.

Evocative words such as chaos, destiny, shroud and deafening silence bring back the horror. I read it again and again and felt the hurt.

Board Meeting an ironic poem for 9/11.

“Dog-Day board meeting,

Got my Jerry Garcia

Tie Grateful Dead tune”

A Deep Sadness and I Saw The Smoke Rise two small poems with a wealth of meaning in their lines .

I saw the smoke rise

To the heavens, no falling

Leaves, only bodies

Three lines that said it all

“Why do we Speak of the Holocaust?” a poem with three lines again but saying everything.

Auschwitz Station

At the station - weep

And rage in secret prayer. Do.

 not inhale Auschwitz.

A brilliant three liner.

This is an amazing, wonderful collection of poems and short plays. Although they touch on grim reality in life Mel Waldman gives us hope for the future.

The above review was contributed by: Jessica Roberts: Jessica has been a book reviewer for a newspaper and a national women's magazine and is working on a novel. To read more of Jessica's reviews CLICK HERE