Reviewer Amy Lignor: Amy is the author of a historical fiction novel entitled The Heart of a Legend, and Mind Made, a work of science fiction. Presently, she is writing an adventure series set in the New York Public Library, as well as a teen fiction series, The Angel Chronicles. She is an avid traveler and has been fortunate to have journeyed across the USA, where she has met the most amazing people, who truly bring life and soul to her books. She lives in the Land of Enchantment (for now) with her gorgeous daughter, Shelby, her wonderful Mom, Mary, and the greatest friend and critic in the entire world - her dog, Reuben
Author: Pamela August Russell
ISBN:
978-1-4027-6787-6
Click Here To Purchase B Is for Bad Poetry
Finally! A title that exactly
fits a book. No, no...I'm not being mean. With every turn
of every page I was met with sarcasm, cynicism -even enthusiasm - any
"ism" you can think of, really. In fact, when you
read closely, you can see each aspect of your own life spread out on
its pages - the dark and funny side that always hits us right between
the eyes - whether we're paying attention or not.
Let me
explain. (I promise not to uncover all the poetic gems).
On page five, I was treated to "A Beginner's Guide to
Mediocrity" (one of the things I am completely scared of
becoming). The last stanza was "Don't bother getting out
of bed...The world is crowded enough...without you and your big
ideas." I ask you, how frightening is that? For
someone with very large ideas, like myself, I shook from that
paragraph as much as when Norman Bates was playing dress-up in his
mother's clothes.
I went further and opened another door
to a poem titled, "Motto". Short, sweet, and to the
point. This poem really fits the moments in life when you try
with all your might to tell your boss you need a raise. He nods
his head in understanding. His paycheck has gotten smaller too
because, there's just not enough in the company's coffers right now.
He continues by saying that he'd like to discuss this more in depth
with you, but he has to get up to his summer house to make sure the
new builders have installed the hot tub properly.
You
can even go back to your happy, jolly school days with a poem in this
book titled, "College Notebook." As my senior
daughter is graduating next May, I thought long and hard on this
one. What she would learn, the subjects that would fill her
mind and make her a better person, knowing - after reading this poem,
that her most important class would most likely become the "Kegger
at Bryce Hall 3:30 p.m."
I was met with a poem
about my favorite food, which is Chinese, in the "Unfortunate
Cookie." Which read, "You will meet with someone who
will bring you much joy and love. Eventually they will devour
your soul like its a hot-dog eating championship. Lucky
Numbers: 543, 8, 192, 78" I love those fortune
cookies. After eating my meal, I await the deep philosophical
words of an unknown machine in a warehouse somewhere that, of course,
tells me the absolute truth.
I have to say I went
from poem to poem and met up with the demons that surround me in
everyday life. This book couldn't have gone to a better person,
because anyone who has read my reviews of the sarcastic and silly
know that I love to laugh, and my sarcasm knows no bounds. God
knows, laughter is the only way to get through life without becoming
the newest member of the Manson Family. I think I really found
my own sense of humor in Dallas, when I moved there from a small town
in Connecticut. I was waiting on a customer one day and she
aked me about my accent (didn't know I had one). She asked me
where I was from. Not thinking, I replied, "New England."
At this point the woman's eyes grew wide and she said, "Really?
Wow! You don't sound British." Yes...that was
the end for me in the Lone Star state.
Why?
Because with sarcasm, you can only test it for just so long.
Eventually things become unfunny and when that happens, you need to
move on. Irony has its place, but so does intelligence.
This author offered me a way to really describe some of the supidity
that has "thrown me off course" every once in a while.
It was titled "Sadness You Old Minx." And it stated
very simply: "I have trouble parallel parking on a lonely
road." Think about it? How many people have you met
in life that you KNOW would never be able to accomplish that one
thing.
See? This book makes you think. Now I
don't know if this is the perfect gift for everyone. Perhaps
some will read it and think it would be nothing more than a great
gift for a bachelor's party. But others, the less jovial of us,
need a gift like this. They need to gasp with shock at the rude
and inane things that are written, considering that the same rude and
inane things are being thought by over half of the population.
Walt Whitman, Robert Frost...these writers were wonderful and gave us
poetry that will forever be written on the bottom of posters that
will line your bedroom with heartfelt happiness and words of hope.
But, for people who tend to like Poe and his Raven, there are the Ms.
Russell's of the modern world that take words and slam you in the
face with them, begging you to let go, laugh a little, and understand
that the world and everyone in it, is more than slightly askew. :P