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Use the sun when it softens the night"
Taking poetry's natural heritage of coming from experience, nostalgia, memory, and emotions, this Mullins' collection of poetry focuses on a love of writing to share feelings and inspiration. The content of the poems varies across romance, nature, introspection, recollection, and more. There is a consistent rhyming scheme throughout, but the storytelling approach varies depending on the subject matter. Each poem is preceded by a short explanation provided by the author that gives readers an inside view at what inspired a particular poem or explains its concepts in more direct language. This approach creates a window for the reader that invites them in more closely to the poet's creative process and makes it easier to relate to the ideas and feelings expressed in these selections.
The uncommon approach of offering a commentary to accompany each poem makes the journey through these verses more intimate and interesting. Linguistically, these poems are largely simple, eschewing fancy flourishes in favor of a style that communicates easily but still offers the author the ability to exercise his creativity. This is perhaps made most evident through the stringent rhyming structure of the book, challenging the author with translating personal experiences and ideas into a lyrical format. Like many poetry collections, this can be read cover to cover rather quickly, but is best enjoyed one poem at a time or to tie a specific experience with something well-written to enhance the reader's appreciation. Readers who enjoy personal sentiments or poetry of any kind will be satisfied, but those who want a deeper insight into an author's mind will be drawn in by the additional commentary sections.