Author: Caroline Nderitu
Publisher: Caroline Communications; 1st edition (January 14, 2007)
Reviewed by: Faith Oneya
Performance Poet Caroline Nderitu is a holder of a Head of State Commendation in arts and culture, Kenyatta University Outstanding young Alumni award and Eve Woman of the Year- Arts. She has published three books-Caroline Verses, Play Your Drum and Love Only.
Caroline Nderitu?s relentless optimism and infectious enthusiasm for words and rhyme are the most consistent things about this poetry collection.
The poetry collection is delivers a blend of themes on love. Infatuations, Heartbreaks, Triumphs are all celebrated alike.
There is the poem Almost Love that captures some simple truths about relationships. Sample this first stanza;
You almost love me
If only I was something else
Maybe more this
Or more the other
Thinner or Wiser
Healthier and Happier
This seemingly happy-go-lucky book could at first be dismissed as frivolous in its topic of choice. The red cover could limit one?s imagination to thinking the book is just about romantic love. One begins to see the depth of the book in some of the themes that the author chooses to address like one-sided ?love, abusive relationships etc:
Sample a few lines from her poem: Not Worth It
??..
If you refuse to meet me
Halfway
But place a mirror in my face
To feed me
With my own scars
If all you do is un-build
The broken pieces I merge
If I can lay down my life
Entwine it with yours ?
Then there are poems written tongue-in-cheek: The Big O!( Not what you think it is?lol). You would have to read to find out!
All in all, the poet succeeds in her effort to explore, and richly so, the theme of love. Her vast experience as a performing poet (Over thirty years) are brought to bear through her lyrical poems, some of which seem like they would gain more from performance than just sitting idle in pages.
It must be mentioned that the poetry in the book often suffers from over-enthusiastic and what appears to be forced rhyme in some cases. One might even call them ??success-card like? which is an unfair way of?presenting? poetry to an audience with discerning taste. Allow me to demonstrate in the following poem titled
???? Hear Dear
I want you to be near,
Dear,
I?d like you here,
Dear,
But Dear,
I fear
?.
If there will be a reprint of the same (and there should be), then much better editing and revisions are needed in some of the poems to justify the hundreds of hard-earned shillings that any eager poetry lover will spend on the book.
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