My first book review. I enjoyed this book and the places it took me to - experience the journey.
PLACES AND TIMES
by Arthur Turfa
Travel from the shores of California , to Pennsylvania
and New Mexico
- Beautifully written!! Descriptions of places in Europe
described in ways that will make you feel you are visiting.
“A gathering around Buda Castle
On the night before the national
feast.
Vendors’ booths crowding narrow
paths upward,
Inside green swath teems between
the towers.
Aromas of goulash arising from
Huge black kettles. Colorful
dancers swirl
As they have before coming to this
ground.
Burly, deep-voiced singer, with
red-golden
Fu Manchu leads guitars and violins
Through folksongs inaccessible to
me;”
Thoughts and remembrances of long
ago times, some of lost friends, classroom experiences, sights and sounds of
nature lingering in the mind long after visitations. Memories coming in flash
encounters of everyday task like pumping gas while being open to the people
that he passes.
The author describes it all in
verses that pull you inside his memories and you enjoy the view.
“Collaborations” takes a look at the fakeness sometimes found in
group relations on the job and though his discussion is based on college
professors, these things happen on any job:
"Sometimes conflicting forces
collide
in a clash between department and
school-wide;
degenerating into a competition about who
CARES MORE FOR STUDENTS or who
HAS BEEN HERE LONGER and other such
garbage".
Places
and Times is full of reflections of shared good times standing in places
once visited in long ago eras and travels tucked away safely in the recessions
of an active mind that enjoys the memories looking back as in “My Two Paths”
“Time now to rest under spreading
branches of pleasant trees and enjoy where I have been”
The entire book takes you on a
journey ending in the reality of today.
Excellent is the word I use to
describe this book of poems!!!
Reviewed by: Connie Jordan
November
15, 2015
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25304005-places-and-times
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