Bitmo Sunday book review

A Few Places Near Home by Frank Prem – Freeverse #Poetry

Published on by dgkaye

My Sunday Book Review is for Frank Prem’s brand new release – A Few Places Near Home. This is a beautiful book of prose and gorgeous closeup images of nature which correspond to each poem, embracing the passing of time.

x

Available Now on Amazon

x

Blurb:

Where do you look to find the beauty of the world?

Is it in a place that has been recently featured in a tourism brochure? Perhaps, away in a foreign country that lies a journey by airplane distant?

Or could it be closer to home – right beneath your feet and before your eyes?

A Few Places Near Home is a picture-poetry collection that finds the beauty that surrounds us all the time.

It is the beauty of home, seen through the lens of the passing of time and the approach of evening.

A celebration of sunset and the gloaming hues that recur in new forms and variations each day.

A Few Places Near Home is the here-and-now of beauty in our lives combined with contemplation that is the poetry of evenings and of autumn. The maturity of days.

x

My 5 Star Review:

Prem’s latest book is themed prose and corresponding close-up images of nature which suggest representation of time passing. The author admits he sees things with different eyes than he did before. His stories focus on places where he lives in Australia and the passing years and changes in landscape – both literal and metaphorically. The author has captured many beautiful images in this book, and is a wonderful photographer as well as a poet. This book would make a beautiful coffee table book filled with moving prose to make us ponder with gorgeous accompanying images.

Poems that struck a chord with me: Weed (once) – a lovely closeup image of a cluster of weeds where the author questions his transition from that once young weed to the man he’s become, Watch Within (the passing time) – a reminiscing of life, Toward Tomorrow – day into darkness, All Right Again One Day – perspective on an upside down world.

Prem always takes us into his perspective in all his stories. This is another beautiful book with words that are worthy of having me pick up this book from time to time and reread.

Poems that resonated:

Weed (once)


hello scruff
hello fluff
my spiky friends
of the roadside
how you remind me
of what I was
and who
such days!
thoughtless
carefree
prickly
and bristling
when
did I stop being
that weed?
become
this man?

x

toward tomorrow
(I will turn)


the red night
is falling down
the day
almost done
I can barely see
the way
toward tomorrow
perhaps
the need
is to turn around
the west
possesses yesterday
east
the day to come
yet
I am held
by the passing
of today dreams
into darkness
maybe
when they have fallen –
their hold on me
broken –
maybe then
I can be
free enough
to turn . . .
toward tomorrow

x

Just a note: Frank has put up a post explaining his dilemma with putting this book in Kindle form. He is offering a link for those who wish to have a preview in PDF form of this book. Please head over to Frank’s post for details.

©DGKaye2023

67 thoughts on “A Few Places Near Home by Frank Prem – Freeverse #Poetry”

      1. I just can’t seem to create a stable version, Debby. The structure has a layer of background colour, then an image on top and text beside it or over the top of that. When I create all of the layers get seperated and it turns into a woofer’s brekky.

        Paperback only, I think.

        Like

    2. Hi Stevie. Thank you. I certainly don’t feel like the young chicken I used to be and the thought of afternoon images and passing of time poems appealed to me very much.

      Like

      Reply

    2. Hi Jacqui – thank you. I can’t make a stable digital edition other than the PDF, unfortunately – layers of colour and layers image go all over the place even with fixed format, so that seems to be a bust.

      Paperback only.

      Like

      Reply

    2. Thanks so much, Diana.

      I keep looking for new ways to test my craft and am really enjoying developing photography skills to use with the writing. I have in mind a landscape orientation 11 x 8.5 inch collection of street photography images and poems. We shall see.

      Like

      Reply

  14. Frank, I like your poetic style and admire the marrying of verse and picture. This sounds like the kind of book I’d buy for myself and then gift to a friend this holiday season.

    Thanks, Debby, for keeping us in the loop with current releases! 😀

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    2. Thanks so much, Marian. My idea was that this would serve as a coffee-table book that could be left lying around for visitors or passers by to take a peek at – pictures to catch the eye, verse to enhance – that kind of thing.

      Hopefully it will gift well.

      Like

      Reply

  16. I love the book’s premise: the beauty of home. I live in Canada and everyday I am surrounded by beauty. I just must remember to see, listen and touch it.
    Thank you, Debby for reviewing this book. And thank you Mr. Frank Prem for reminding us how fortunate we are!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    2. Hi Carol – thank you.

      In my mature years (like right now), I’m finding real beauty simply everywhere around me. It’s only now with a few photographic skills and equipment that I can capture some of the images that engage me all the time. Small, and local, is very beautiful.

      Canada must be simply amazing.

      Like

      Reply

    2. Thank you so much, Janet.

      I tried hard to get it into a digital format, but it defeated me. I agree with you, though. A book that
      is easy to pick up and enjoy a few pictures and poems in passing is what I had most in mind.

      Like

      Reply

Leave a comment