Title: Immoral Thoughts & Eternal Poems
Author: Bennett W. McLoughlin
Publisher: Orphic Press
ISBN: 9780692007297
Pages: 200, Paperback
Genre: Poetry
Reviewed by: Gary Sorkin, Pacific Book Review
Book Review
Naked as a blank sheet of paper, Bennett W. McLoughlin stands before you as he presents his collection of work in Immoral Thoughts & Eternal Poems. Sensitive snippets of thoughts meticulously arranged reveal the author as a traveler through life, often being hurt or betrayed by others, causing his poetry to become his sanctuary. Surely he writes about people in his life, aloof in particular identifiable details causes a form of riddle in his work at times, and although a name is unimportant, I had the feeling he’s toying his reading audience whilst starring at the person to whom it’s written about.Technically, in grammatical terms, his work uses occasional pararhymes and no consistent – or rather varied pentameters – offering a meter pace with a changing foot. Being a pseudo-sonnet sequence, nearly 200 poems into 6 major categories affording a tidal progression of thoughts through phases of his emotional evolution.
Structure aside, the content is extremely entertaining and thought provoking. For example, in Message, he writes, “But always have faith in your spirituality; when you feel the world is spinning all around you, remember to spin in the opposite direction creating that passive energy as well as you can.” I thought to myself the motion of the Earth’s Coriolis Effect and how one’s steadfast belief in God sets a personal course through the perils of societal influence. Page after page, Immoral Thoughts & Eternal Poems extracted my own reverberations of thoughtful ponderance causing me to gravitate to Bennett W. McLoughlin’s work with profound pleasure.
This exactly 200 page collection is clad in a cover photo showing a blurred image of an older metropolitan street, with the stark silhouette of a leafless tree, defining a winter scene amidst the last gleam of the sun setting. Noticeably the cars direction indicates the photograph is taken looking back, as from the rear of a bus. I can only imagine how Ben had his leather bound notebook, favorite pen, and fresh thoughts in his mind as he prolifically wrote his sensitive, revealing, innermost thoughts while returning from his life altering episode. As an entrepreneurial detail I haven’t seen before, he offers readers a signed handwritten copy of any of his poems if contacted for a nominal fee – quite clever and no doubt creates a bond with his reading audience. I think I’ll order Message.
