Poetic Passion: Love Inspiration & Conversation, by Jesse Johnson (Also known as Jesse Set Apart Johnson)
My review: (unrated)
I am choosing not to assign a star rating for this book. I have not read read a lot of poetry, and I don’t know how to judge quality. Consider this a novice review with value only to other novice poetry readers.
Note: I originally published this review under the wrong book title; I had ordered a different book by the same author, “Connections: A Look at Collaborating Artists & People,” but apparently received a mis-print. The cover was for Connections but the content of the book was Poetic Passion. So I’m re-publishing for the correct book title and taking out my comments about how the cover doesn’t match the rest of the book!
This is a book of poetry and art. The pages are a mixture of poems, photographs and paintings. Most of the art is by the author, though there are a few images from other artists.
The poems are mostly dated to a few days in May of 2020, which puts them in the context of the COVID-19 epidemic, and just before the social unrest in the United States that began in June of the same year.
As I said above, I don’t really know how to judge poetry, but I have to admit I’m not a great fan of this style of poems. They are made to rhyme, and don’t conform to any regular meter. I like the general subject matter of the poems – they’re not wallowing in darkness, but mostly expressing optimism or pleas to work on becoming better people. They do need a bit of editing, as there are some spelling and grammar mistakes.
That said, I AM a fan of the art in this book, especially the paintings. They match the themes of the poetry and complement it well.
If you enjoy art and poetry, or just want something a little off your normal path, check this book out!
