Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Book Review: Solitude of Five Black Moons

Happy Holiday's Everyone!
Frances Shani Parker submitted the following reveiw of my new poetry book.

Book Review: Solitude of Five Black Moons 
Author: Aurora Harris
Book Reviewer: Frances Shani Parker, Author of Becoming Dead Right: A Hospice Volunteer in Urban Nursing Homes

Solitude of Five Black Moons by Aurora Harris takes readers on a poetic journey through four chapters of emotional highs and lows with stations of enlightenment along the way. Warming up with scenic routes, she explores lyrically pleasant memories in the first chapter titled We Speak the Same Language. Harris, a Black Filipina American, travels onward examining various societal injustices locally and globally. She honors her ancestors from Mississippi to the Philippines, particularly her mother, and ultimately women everywhere in Remember Their Stories, the second chapter.

The word ride progresses with Harris’ historical references portraying the universal as personal, stretching readers’ understanding and empathy for shared suffering and liberation, regardless of location or culture. The Checkpoints chapter speaks to racial discrimination in America, divided Israel and Palestine, and the importance of cohesive communities. When the Poets Became Jukeboxes laments younger so-called poets’ degrading and violent expressions embracing inhumane lifestyles. Harris explains how she changes them through her teachings. Finally, there is the jazz cooldown chapter where readers, well traveled now inside themselves and others, settle into sound satisfaction with A Circular Breathing of Sunrise.

Written with eloquence and sensitivity conveying the author’s profound passion and exemplary writing skills, Solitude of Five Black Moons inspires readers’ common survival on highest levels. Most of all, Aurora Harris’ poetry reminds readers that, no matter where life takes us, we all belong to one another. I highly recommend this literary gift.


No comments:

Post a Comment