Title: Skies and Chasms
Author: James Richard Hansen
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 978-1-6655-6804-3
Genre: Poetry
Pages: 53
Reviewed by: Allison Walker
Pacific Book Review
Skies and Chasms is a robust poetry collection exploring the spectrum of human experience. Poet James Richard Hansen delivers nature poetry which manages to both isolate and include humanity’s mortal fragility into the immortal vastness of nature. Skies and Chasms is both literal, exploring the extremes of nature, oceans and galaxies, and metaphorical, the intense highs and lows of human emotion. Readers of Skies and Chasms will experience the blend of nature into civilization where the mundane of each somehow accentuates the other into something even more wonderful. Yet other poems through this collection will focus on the relentless consistency of nature as an antidote to the chaos and turbulence of modernization.
Hansen likes very big imagery: oceans, mountains, galaxies serve to emphasize the smallness of man and our fleeting lifespans. There is certainly an element of the grain of sand in the ocean to Hansen’s poetry. Despite the awe and splendor, the embrace of things bigger than ourselves, there’s a chill of fear, as well. Then, like all life itself, there is the fight to survive. Hansen writes, “Strong undercurrents pulled me under, and I was unable to prevent the plunge… I can see the surface now. I can see sunlight and the promise of life.” Readers experience man’s struggle as both a part of and apart from the ceaseless tide of nature.
As a poet, Hansen has the ability to punch his readers with very short, striking lines. He is a very strong nature poet; writing with an abundance of self-reflection. For instance, the glittering surface of the ocean is beautiful as he adds as a reminder of the “riches of the universe.” One can love looking at the stars when he ties it to “humanity. Even with all its foibles and failures.” The poetry explores the existence of natural phenomena and tends to place over top a human lens.
Skies and Chasms is a collection of really lovely and short poems. When a poet writes short pieces, as Hansen does, there is magnificent pressure to deliver your message. Hansen succeeds every time. Poetry should make the reader experience emotion. Even nature poetry where imagery reigns most supreme should invoke a powerful response. Skies and Chasms does this softly. It’s a collection that is easy to enjoy. If Thoreau’s Walden proved too exhaustive, try Hansen’s Skies and Chasms instead.
