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The Seeker Is The Sought: Poems of
Lovers' Joys. Lovers' Empowerments by Marvin Richard Montney Outskirts Press
book review by J.Alpha
"I had no time to make the ocean overhear me first confess I love you."
Structured in three parts: The Seeker, The Sought, and The Found, Marvin Richard Montney's collection of poems, titled The Seeker Is The Sought: Poems of Lovers' Joys, Lovers' Empowerments, focuses on the serenity and turbulence of intimate relationships.
The thrill of the chase between the seeker and the sought—each powerful in their own right—is authentically portrayed throughout Montney's entire collection of well-crafted words, which freely float with lyrical confidence from beginning to end.
Often rooted in a specific time and place, Montney's vivid words lure readers into vibrant depictions of the green-throated cliffs and gladiola-bright suns of Hawaii. While his adept use of repetition—a fundamental emphatic and passionate poetic device—mirrors the rhythmic dance of intimate relationships as reflected in the poem titled White-tipped Gray, Montney's observation of a gull...
here the gull, in white-tipped gray, comes gliding
all as if one solid wing –comes gliding
past me, not twelve feet away, just inches
there above the ocean cliff I stand on
You are beautiful, I, silent, say then
to myself, though just as if aloud to
her—to me—to all who might just hear me
out above this roar
You are beautiful, I tell her, though, as
if she does not know already, gliding
there, flown past me now and far beyond me
Broadly, Montney's poems reflect the feelings, stirring emotions, intellect, and language of lived and sensually experienced relationships. And specifically, as illustrated in his poem the Lady Replies, Montney reveals the mutual vulnerability of the seeker and the sought, as they both reveal their fears, by employing the instructional "telling" tone of a second person narrative... you would not confide me your blackest fears, and load: wouldn't share with me, your deepest fellow warrior.
The Seeker. The Sought. In pursuit. Or on the run. No matter how far apart. Montney's poems individually seek to reduce the gaps, allowing intimacy. And the universality of his ardent collection overall will widely appeal to readers who are seeking to appreciate and make sense of intimate relationships and to... drink deeply from that spring which breaks forth when the I of you is shed.