Title: Mom’s Poetry
Author: Kathleen Dunleavy
Artwork: Dr. Frank Stringfellow
Publisher: BookVenture Publishing, LLC
ISBN: 978-1-64069-959-5
Genre: Poetry
Reviewed by: Beth Adams
Pacific Book Review
To me, experiencing Mom’s Poetry was as if I came across an old chest in the attic of a home, among boxes storing clothing and photographs, and opened it up with curiosity based upon looking at the distinguished portrait picture of the author Kathleen Dunleavy on the cover. Upon paging the book I was taken into the lives of a functional and loving Irish family with all of the warmth and beauty of a growing group of children, parents, pets and friends. As a reader I was being invited into their innermost personal thoughts, interactive relationships, losses and celebrations – all woven through poetic verse and artwork, as it was revealed to all they have a deep faith in God and love for each other.
Mom’s Poetry is an orchestrated work conducted by poet and author Kathleen Dunleavy. She merged the originality of poetic praise for the heroes of 9-11, the honoring of people close to her such as Patricia A. Molden and Mary C. Doman, along with a sequence of Thanksgiving poems written from 2002 through 2016; all the while interleaving beautiful artwork by Dr. Frank Stringfellow into a masterpiece reveal of the celebration of her family’s lives. I very much was taken by the poem “Our Dad” as his life ended abruptly and too soon, yet he left the seeds of success to each of his children. The poem titled, “Loneliness” also was moving, as each of the dozen lines offered a different definition of the word which when thought of in its totality created a verbal encompassment of the many types and feelings of loneliness.
Uncluttered, her poetry flows with honesty, respect and enlightenment along with the occasional black & white artwork peppered throughout the book offering pause for reflection. The sequences of Thanksgiving poems brings familiar names to the chronicling of accomplishments, goals and ambitions of their family meeting, most often at Mike and Catrin’s home for their annual gathering. Readers get to know the many members, and can certainly see similarities with their own family or other families they are close to. It is as if these poems were their annual “Holiday Greetings” to each other and their friends.
The reading audience for Mom’s Poetry is certainly a close group of people who have met, or know Kathleen Jane Madden Dunleavy. Yet, just as powerful an attraction is the open-ended group of those new readers who wish to seek out interesting people and immerse themselves into other’s lives without following a biographical genre. This is a good way to get to know the Dunleavy family, and enjoy the heart-felt emotional revaluations within Mom’s Poetry. It is a tribute, indeed, to all within its covers.
