Title: Poetry Through My Ages, Still Writing
Author: Brent Jared Dearham
Publisher: XlibrisAU
ISBN: 978-1-5245-6090-4
Genre: Poetry
Pages: 86
Reviewed by: Barbara Miller
Pacific Book Review
Author and poet Brent Jaren Dearham has assembled a collection of verses written chronologically through the years, publishing them in a book titled very appropriately, Poetry Through My Ages, Still Writing. As he indicated “Through My Ages,” the reader sees the maturing and development of a preteen, going into young manhood, then into the mature life of an adult; with the variations of perception, values and meaningful interactions in life with situations casted upon him. As a theme throughout, the reader gets a sense of Dearham’s desire to find love, the perfect woman and builds a relationship in which a very sensitive and articulate man such as he deserves.
The style of Dearham’s poetry would best be described as terse lines of only a few words, written to an iambic beat with varying lengths, all ending with interleaving rhymes. On many occasions, the rhymes seem a bit stretched, meaning the word is pulled to fit the sequence of syllables and rhyme rather than the most appropriate word to describe the thought; however given a reasonable poetic license to the author will allow for readers to enjoy the clever wordsmithing and inherent humor and optimism which prevails. Due to the decades of experience within these poems, I noticed a general maturing of the techniques and many impressive rifts of thoughts are interestingly woven into the fabric of his poetry.
One of my favorite poems was actually his shortest, dealing with getting older – with the mind and body becoming frail and failing at times. His earlier work deals with many of the issues young adults are curious about such as people’s attitude, the fun of going to the beach or fishing, or a Christmas story; whereas towards the end of the collection he touches upon issues such as the ability to change, or becoming worlds apart and the chivalrous ways of thinking about a lady. Without a foul word nor indecent thought, Dearham shows his integrity of being a gentleman going through life in search of love, while at all of his junctures of his tribulations, pausing to jot down the realizations of what has happened as an observation of the tendrils of life to be shared by his audience.
Poetry Through My Ages, Still Writing is the genre of a book which can be picked up, set down, then picked up again, not even necessarily at the same point, as each poem begins and usually ends on its own page. This is an ideal format for having in a place where short periods of time allow for only brief reading, such as in a waiting room or on a nightstand. This book will make an excellent gift to a loved one, perhaps embarking on a trip and offering this as a companion. Dearham will no doubt continue his own journey as long as he is living to embellish his medium of wordsmithing art in the form of writing poetry.
