Like many a writer, I occasionally dabble in poetry. Alas that my efforts generally earn the famous “negative score on the Pritchard scale.” (80’s trivia points if you got that).
Today I had the opportunity to review the work of a poet who scores much higher in both how important her poems are, and how artfully they have been rendered.
Across the Miles by Annie Douglass Lima is worthy of your time if you like poetry, like Fantasy (especially Tolkien) or love Jesus. It starts imperfectly, but “Minaret” and “God’s Metronome” soon show you there’s a poet at work. The last stanza of “Hsi Tou” is impressive. Some powerful emotions are evoked in many of the poems. Even imperfect poems usually have a stanza or two that work very well. There’s quite a bit of direct Tolkien inspiration, which is fun for any lover of Fantasy. Sometimes even the poems that aren’t supposed to, still make you feel like you’re in Middle Earth.