Editor: Mary Anneeta Mann

Publisher: Author House

ISBN: 978-1-4490-9009-8

Many of us would have to concur that poetry is an extremely powerful tool in helping us make some sense out of a multitude of challenges that otherwise may prove difficult to comprehend. No doubt, words have a healing power and they have even caught the attention of psychiatrists, oncologists, and others who have used poetry as a therapy in their professional practices. German playwright, poet, novelist and dramatist, Goethe believed that “a man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.”

In the introduction to Mentoring Poems: Four Centuries of Selected Poetry Mary Anneeta Mann states: “Poets are historians of the heart. They live in the realm of spirituality, inevitably connected to the Source of all Life, or God and they adjust to the best of their ability, to their surroundings, mundane or otherwise, to their environment, inspiring or depressing, to their civilization at whatever level the perceive it.”

With Mentoring Poems, Mann has put together a wonderful anthology featuring over one hundred poems that can be succinctly described as a celebration of poetry and the passion it inspires. The poems have been arranged in such a way that readers will find them easy and a pleasure to dip into from time-to-time. As great poems have the power to speak to us across the ages, Mann's choices span four centuries from Shakespeare to the present. In this anthology you will find some of your favorite gems as Rudyard Kiplings If, William Butler Yeats' The Song of Wandering Aengus, Robert Louis Stevenson's Requiem, John Keats' When I have fears, Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken and there are others not as familiar as Thomas Lovell Beddoes' Dream-Pedlary or Edward W. Houston's Addiction but nevertheless illuminating just the same. More importantly, you can expand your range of poetic interest, find new favorites, and learn about different approaches to the poetic art. As Mann mentions, these are poems she has found to be of interest for a variety of reasons, or as she asserts, “have shaped by her own life, with a greater awareness of Australian poetry particularly in its tough yet carefree formative years of the nineteenth century.”

Mann has broken down her anthology into fourteen sections dealing with the following topics: character, art and beauty, joy, wonder and melody, remembrance, Australia, War, peace, poets, love, love of the land and the planet, courage, addiction, reflection, and wisdom. Mann ends with an explanation of philosophy diagram. Mann's choices how poetry can be part of the healing process and how it can soothe the soul, can mentor the heart and encourage us to find meaning in our lives and understand our role in the universe.

No doubt, in addition to being a collection for everyone, the poems contained in the book will also lend a helping hand to those readers that wish to strike out on their own beyond those that are including in the book. Unfortunately, many of us avoid reading poetry because we think it does not speak to us or is too difficult to understand, however I am certain that after dipping your toes into Mentoring Poems you will discover at least one poem that will change your view about poetry.

Follow Here To Read Norm's Interview With Mary Anneeta Mann

Follow Here To Purchase Mentoring Poems 4: Four Centuries of Selected Poetry

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