Title: Purple Heart
Author: Nefy
Publisher: Xlibris
ISBN: 978-1-7960-2741-9
Genre: Poetry
Pages: 54
Reviewed by: Barbara Miller

Read Book Review

Author and poet Nefy had assembled a collection of poetry in Purple Heart which has taken her a decade or so of writing.

Purple Heart pages as if an ageless wisdom is being revealed within modern circumstances of life events. This is a challenging task undertaken by Nefy’s ability to mingle various styles of poetry, musings and philosophy seamlessly into a book that when paging, the reader will get deeper and deeper into the book when all of a sudden the reader will realize it is over. The further I delved into the book, the more impressed I was with her work.

Purple Heart is artfully laid out with the poems being all italicized with the same clear font, although contributing to her unique artistic talent, Nefy interlaced each page with totally captivating photographs which relate to the theme of the poems. She “read into” the pictures with her appropriately inspired words, which indeed creates a visual and verbal connection in the readers’ minds, enhancing the reveal of both the mediums. The pictures compliment the poems, as the poems expand the impression of the pictures.

The wisdom within the poetry is well worth highlighting. In her poem titled “Gerascophobia,” the photograph of an elderly person’s hands showing wrinkles and age spotting along with the related feelings of having no control over aging was extremely emotionally impactful. That poem will forever reside in my mind. On page 41 she shows a lone eagle on the top of a tree and brilliantly compares loneliness and solitude. She writes, “Don’t confuse solitude with loneliness. One is a bungee jump, the other a push off a cliff.” In her poem titled “Shameful Shameless” about a gay male couple, one line which I found exceptionally insightful is, “For we didn’t meet by holy hour of day / We met by shameful toll of night.” In “Legacy” she defines, “There are 2 kinds of people in the world: the fortunate ones, who never find their calling or trade it in to find domestic bliss, peace and anonymity; and then, there are the ones, who find their calling and stick to it. They breathe for it, sweat for it, die for it.” Again revealing her wisdom and insightful sensitivity to the world we live in.

Purple Heart is the genre of book one should buy for yourself or as a gift for a loved one, as each time I read it I gained more and more of what Nefy has so magnificently scribed. Yes, it actually gets better on the second and third paging. I certainly hope to see many future books from this talented poet, writer, artist and philosopher – Nefy. Purple Heart by Nefy is a collection of feelings straight from the author’s heart that will touch all readers.