I was recently looking through this book, published in 2019, but taking place closer to 2012, and wish I had circulated more with it at the time.
Nevertheless as the book title hints, I was just too busy with family and making a living. This said, the book garnered three reviews and one reading at the Enoch Pratt Library, in downtown Baltimore, Md.
The Midwest Book Review’s November 2021 review via Donovan’s Bookshelf monthly newsletter is excerpted below, as the link is cumbersome. Cheers.
KIRKUS REVIEW (JULY 2021) (Linked here)
LOCH RAVEN REVIEW (by Editor Dan Cuddy) (Linked here)
Diane Donovan’s Bookshelf (November 2021) (linked here)
(hosted by MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW)
(AN EXCERPT)
Family Snapshot as a Poem in Time by G.H. Mosson
Finishing Line Press (March 2019, ISBN: 9781635348491, $14.99)
Family Snapshot as a Poem in Time is a poetry collection the entire family can enjoy, and captures a father’s love for his daughter and son with pieces that celebrate growth and family connections.
These free verses offer readers the chance to view their own families in a different light against the mirror of G.H. Mosson’s experience with time’s passage, growth, and interactions with his kids:
“Firecracker daughter,/your volcano of energy exhausts my imagination. I always thought/imagination meant walking in a moonlit field weeping/Where was I? And where have I traveled to? The easy answer: time.”
The narrator questions the legacy he transmits to the next generation (“If I am not a dreamer, how will my son know me?”) while also transmitting to this generation poetic pieces that will resonate with young listeners and observers:
“Thinnest crescent in the night, your moonbeams gleam/a tinsel light, and two tiny stars nearby/are just as bright./I think you’ll play together tonight/when I’m not watching.”
As the pieces for adults in the first half weave into verse for children in the second half, the entire family will find the arc of the book also evocative and reflective of the parenting experience:
It’s unusual to see a poetry collection that can appeal across generations, but Family Snapshot as a Poem in Time is such a production.
Diane C. Donovan, Senior Reviewer
Donovan’s Literary Services
www.donovansliteraryservices.com
Cheers,
G. H. Mosson