"The pictures never taken, are now memories in my heart."
Pictures Never Taken by Marianne Burrow Gray Trafford Publishing
book review by Lamisha Serf
"The pictures never taken, are now memories in my heart."
A single human life is made up of a vast array of experiences, events, and circumstances all culminating in our memory banks where we may or may not choose to revisit them. Poets allow their memories to spill onto paper, their words dancing in various rhythms creating a portfolio of expression of the life they have been given. Author Marianne Burrow Gray paints her memories with words, creating a literary masterpiece that delves into subjects that readers can relate to such as love, death, and happiness. Her work is broken into subcategories that tie similar pieces together providing a well-organized book of prose. Various drawings and photographs are strategically disbursed throughout the pages, adding emphasis to a specific poem while at the same time illustrating a particular moment her lifetime.
Gray's poems move between transparent accounts of human emotion (e.g. in her poem "Alone") to more concealed expressions of life (e.g. in her poem "That Game I Play), though all are written with much passion and fervor. Her poetry encompasses the full spectrum of the emotional scale as she describes everything from happiness to heartache. Her work provokes emotion and may lead readers into their own memories as they relate to her beautiful words.
Pictures Never Taken is far more than a volume of poems; instead it is an artistic book of memories that allows readers to catch a glimpse of life through the author's eyes. It is full of pieces that provoke thought and emotion and is great for poetry-lovers that enjoy a wide variety of topics.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review