I'd like to say upfront that I have never been that fond of poetry, which is odd for someone who likes music a lot. Maybe it comes from too many years of having to read it against my will in school or maybe I was exposed to too much of the dark side of it...I'm not sure. I do know I love Emily Dickinson, but that's about it. My poetry expertise is seriously lacking.
Even so, I like _My Strength_ because it's sincere, often sweet and very much for anyone needing to find inner strength wherever they can. Sincerity and sweetness can go a long way for someone who truly needs both in their lives during trying times. All the proper poetry technique in the world means nothing to me if there is no heart to it and Debra George's poetry definitely has lots of heart.
My three favorites from this collection are "Anger" ("This will be the last that /Anger causes me dismay/Just keep in mind that /anytime you go to that dark place"), "Crazy" (Captured in the middle/ nothing's funny yet you giggle/ Feeling out of place but you/ still try to act civil) and "Disgust" (But you’re in another place, /and they take that as being rude.)* There is an honesty to them, an easy to relate to quality about the whole collection that I like a lot.
The author herself writes in the beginning: "I wrote this for all of those who encounter emotional challenges in their everyday life. We are all human and experience a spiral of different feelings." One of my favorite passages is from "Yearning: "...just the feeling alone is the entity that carries you."
_My Strength_ is meant for those of us who get exactly what she's saying. I'll keep this on my Kindle app because of that. After all, one reason many of us read is because it gives us great comfort to know we're not alone in our thoughts, even the most isolating or odd ones....
*Just a side note: I put the breaks in as they appeared in the Kindle edition on the
iPhone app.
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