BOOK REVIEW – I LOST SUMMER SOMEWHERE – BY SARAH RUSSELL

Reviewed By Charles Robert Lindholm – The Reluctant Poet

Reading Sarah’s Book – I Lost Summer Somewhere
Is Like Opening A Box Of Chocolates Late At Night And Taking Just One,
Only To Find As You Are Reaching To Turn Out The Light
That You’ve Eaten The Whole Box In A Single Sitting!!  You Just Couldn’t Help Yourself!!!

I Started Reading Sarah’s Book During An Extreme Texas Thunder Storm
At Five O’clock In The Morning To Flashes Of Lightning And Rolling Thunder
And Didn’t Stop Turning Pages Until The Storm Was Long Gone And I Reached The Final Page!  A Mesmerizing And Delightful Journey For Me.

Robert Frost Is My Favorite Poet.   After Years Of Reading Thousands Of Poems From Other Poets To Share With Followers On My Blog, I Have Finally Found In Sarah’s Writing, A Poet Who Is Able To Capture The Same Wondrous Feelings, Observations Of Life And Experiences In The Same Magical Way !

In – I Lost Summer Somewhere – Sarah Takes Us Through A Poetic
Journey Of Her Life From Childhood, Young Adult, Mid Life, Through Being In Her Seventies.  This Is A Book For Everyone, Not Just Women.  Sarah Has Said, “Not All Poems Are From My Personal Life, But You Will Have To See If You Can Pick Out Which Ones Are!”

Sarah’s Poems Are A Delight And A Joy To Read!  If You Love Great Poetry And All That Makes Poetry Great, You Will Love The Poems In Sarah’s Book.  This Book Is Filled With So Many Great Poems That Will Take You Through All Kinds Of Emotions And Feelings And Surprise Endings From Life – With Lines, And Gems Of Inspiration, Alliteration, Metaphors And More To Reward You For Owning And Reading Sarah’s Book.

When I Find Something That I Enjoy And Love I Want To Share It With Others – A Way Of Enriching Those We Come In Contact With.  So, Here Are A Few Samples Of Sarah’s Poems From – I Lost Summer Somewhere.

One Of The First Poems I Read And One Of My Favorite Poems – Is A Slice Of Life Poem
A Late Epiphany

When all the kids went down
to Junie’s basement the year
we turned thirteen, I stayed
to help her mother put candles
on the cake.  I imagined
the spinning bottle, the dark
fruit cellar.  I’d read Peyton Place.

A couple of years later
after braces and Noxema,
I tried it in the back seat of a Chevy
and came to Jesus

Here are some snippets and excerpts,

Leaving West Virginia

The road curls snug against the hills,
dips into hollows, rises through stands
of oak, rough against dun clouds
that promise snow . . . .

. . . . The world is raw, waiting where the road
goes flat and blurs in the rush to get somewhere.
I watched for dawn this morning, waiting to be gone.
Now I want to salt away this place the way it is,
the way I was.
(This especially reminded me of Frost)

Engagement

“The sharp-edged City
softens in the snow”

Ephemera

“and over a bucket of clams and corn
decided who got what
Circles, short lived in the tide
my wedding ring in the dresser drawer

Four: Fourteen: Seventy

. . . . . “I know, Honey. Middle schools the pits,” I say
and wonder even in this more enlightened,
feminist, almost-equal-pay, got-the-vote-and-the-pill
no-glass-ceiling, have-it-all-age it will take
forty years and two marriages for my granddaughter
to give herself permission to sing and skip
whenever she wants, like it did for me.

I hope you will enjoy adding, “I Lost Summer Somewhere”
to the treasure trove in your library as much as I have loved
adding it to mine

Chuck Lindholm
The Reluctant Poet

And just so you don’t have to take my word for it!! Here are some other
responses to Sarah’s book.

July 5, 2019By scintilla.admin  Poetry

I lost summer somewhere is poignant, elegant, and sometimes emotionally raw. Reading it drew me into a world of love and loss, of new love found, of letting go of an aging parent piece by piece, of being with someone at their most vulnerable point, of watching granddaughters grow into a world we could never have imagined. At times it was a nerve-wracking white-knuckled journey through life. But it is hard to find someone relate that journey with the grace, beauty, and dignity that Russell achieves.

this book is not “for” women or men. It is for anyone who loves language, who loves poetry, for anyone who has loved and anyone who is watching an aging parent decline, for anyone who has enjoyed an “Indian Summer” of life and found a second love and held a child. Sarah Russell’s poems are beautiful and passionate, and I lost summer somewhere is a special collection.

https://scintilla.info/2019/07/05/i-lost-summer-somewhere-sarah-russell/

“Melancholy, exuberance, nostalgia, fulfillment, contentment, longing – Sarah Russell hits all the spots, and there isn’t one poem where a woman won’t be able to identify in some way. She’s singing all our songs, putting into magical words things we felt so often but never knew how to tell. Deep sadness matched by laughter, gentleness, love and a sense of adventure. It was a privilege being there with her, living what she remembers, identifying with every line.”

Rose Mary Boehm, author of Tangents, From the Ruhr to Somewhere Near Dresden, and Peru Blues

“Sarah Russell brings us into her world, a world of “dream-filled summer nights,” where “leaves are October butterflies.” Russell’s poems sing the important moments of life. It’s a song that stays in your mind, drawing you back to the poems again and again.”

Nina Bennett, author of Mix Tape and The House of Yearning