"You make me see only the beauty that lies within while everyone looks out"
 |
Expressions of the Heart by Flora Emmanuel-Joseph Trafford Publishing
book review by JAlpha
In this intimate collection of poetry, Flora Emmanuel-Joseph, an educator for over 24 years, combines her love of literature with her finely-tuned aesthetic expression of carefully conceived thoughts and emotions consisting of both emotional love (I want my mama's boy, but he is not that boy any more, and a man I must let him be. But... let him be) and sexual love (Cool my volcano with your watering hose, for an eruption is imminent deep within my soul.) Although some of the figurative language in this intimate patchwork of sexual rapport, emotional comfort and human discourse is of an erotic nature, the entire collection remains elegant and bold, not crude, or obscene—evoking a subtle sexual essence similar to the Song of Solomon and remaining erotic as it pertains to the definition of "given to love".
A graduate of the University of West Indies and from the small Caribbean Island of Saint Lucia, Emmanual-Joseph's also infuses some of her life experiences from her Caribbean culture into several of the poems in this collection. Specifically regarding the topic of Common law marriage as it is often negatively perceived in various Caribbean mores. (He died and he never married her so many children and grand children... but he gave her not title The gate of heaven he'll never see) Emmanuel-Joseph passionately moves beyond the mere idea of expressing love, with imagery of starry nights and roses by poetically highlighting and recreating several universal levels of intimacy, love, lose and life, while rejoicing in the beauty of romance and sexual unions that many readers can embrace.