Good morning Bookworms everywhere.
After having taken a couple personal days off, Campbell and I are back in action here in campbellsworld.
This morning I’ve a treat for you.
Author Lynda McKinney Lambert is back in our Reading With the Authors column with a review of a poetry that has made even me want to read it.
I’m not one to read such a book as is described here but after reading this review and having read a bit of Lynda’s original work well I have to consider the source and agree to give it a try.
Now I invite you to read Lynda’s thoughts here, and then maybe share a few of your own.
For sure share this post with your friends and make certain to read all about how to find her books before you go.

When Night Comes

by Wesley Sims
A Book Review by Lynda McKinney Lambert

I met poet Wes Sims one Sunday morning while reading my weekly issue of a poetry magazine, The Weekly Avocet,  published by Charles Portolano, features poetry that has a nature theme. In one particular issue, I encountered 3 Haiku poems by Sims. Each intrigued me for he presented new ways of looking at something ordinary. The nature-themed poems caught my attention. Since Mr. Portolano encourages his writers to drop a note to other poets and to make friends with them, I sent a note to Wes Sims to say how much I enjoyed his poems.

Eventually, I learned about Wes Sims’ poetry chapbook, “When Night Comes,” because he sent me a copy. I’ve enjoyed reading this 28-page chapbook. It is a collection of twenty-four poems. You can purchase it directly from Wes Sims by contacting him – he will even sign it for you!  (I’ve included his E-mail at the end of this essay.)

The chapbook’s cover is a moody black and white photo of a nocturnal landscape by the author. I thought “This is the perfect image for this collection of poems.” In addition to writing poetry, Sims likes to do photography. I found that the all-seeing-eye of the photographer is apparent in the poems, as I read through this collection. He sees and speaks of little details that might go unnoticed. It is in the description of the little things that we are brought into Sims’ world through his poems.

In “How to Use a Shoebox,” Wes Sims gives us his secret intention for writing:
“the impact of little things preserved” (p.4)

The mostly one-page poems are created by building up layers of finely nuanced accumulations. Sims is actively viewing and preserving as he writes the poems.. Minute images are intertwined with his personal and private memories as he has known them in rural Tennessee.

Sims describes his world – the present and the distant or even the historical past of his rural landscapes in Tennessee. Reading through the poems brings the reader right into his family circle. This is the place where Past and Present merge. The poem becomes a confluence in which time is collapsed. The individuals he presents are not generalized people, but they are family and they are named.

“grandson; grandmother; Mr. Newman; Sister; Dad; Mother; Uncle Bo; Mrs.. Engle…”

This gives us a feeling that we know them personally or that we have just met them even though many of the people who populate his poems are no longer in this world.

But, more than this Sims gives us a deeper understanding of life as he has known it – and we feel like we, too, have lived this life. In the poem, “Eyes to See,” he speaks of watching a blind man…

“Until one day, when I saw
Him in a church setting
Heard his lips sing out in prayer,
And received my revelation—
I was a blind man, too.”
(from “Eyes to See,” p. 24)

Through the book we see deserted old rundown barns and abandoned empty sheds; time-worn, rarely travelled roads up into the hills; and the last days of people who have passed away. No matter where we live or what our life is like, we relate to Wes Sims and his reflections on particular individuals, rural life, death of loved ones;, flowers, dogs, songs, snakes, music, personal memory and history. We know that our lives are enriched by the small things and places we encounter over a lifetime. It all adds up, in the end. Unimportant and trivial things really do matter.

You can find this chapbook for sale on the publishers website:

Buy it at Finishing Line Press, Link here!to read more.
Also available directly from Wes Sims at:   wes4words@att.net

_____

Meet Lynda McKinney Lambert.  Owner of this blog, SCAN.

Walking by Inner Vision: Stories & Poems
© 2017 by Lynda McKinney Lambert

Pennsylvania artist, teacher, and author Lynda McKinney Lambert invites readers into her world of profound sight loss to discover the subtle nuances and beauty of a physical and spiritual world. She takes strands from ancient mythology, history, and contemporary life and weaves a richly textured new fabric using images that are seen and unseen as she takes us on a year-long journey through the seasons.
All stories in this book were created after her sudden sight loss in 2007 from Ischemic Optic Neuropathy. Lambert invites us to see the world with new eyes.
Available in e-book ($3.99) and print ($14.95) from Amazon, Smashwords, and other sellers. Full details, free 20% text preview, and buying links: http://www.dldbooks.com/lyndalambert/
Edited by David and Leonore H. Dvorkin of DLD Books: http://www.dldbooks.com/
Cover layout by David Dvorkin / Cover photo and back cover text by the author