My Sunday Book Review is for Frank Prem’s moving new release, freeverse poetry with his interpretation of the war in Ukraine – From Volyn to Kherson. This is a most moving collection of tellings from the vision of Prem based on some of the many articles written about the heinous war in Ukraine.

Blurb:

From Volyn To Kherson, tells the stories of hardship and suffering and bewilderment experienced by the people of Ukraine in the early weeks of the 2022 Russian invasion and war.

The collection draws on news reports and social media postings during the most un-curated war the world has ever witnessed, interpreting and translating the raw emotion of this wartime experience.

There is no part of Ukraine that has been left untouched by this war, and no part of the poet left untouched by these stories of the Ukraine.

This book will be part of a series.

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My 5 Star Review:

This book is a deeply emotional read as told through the vision of author Frank Prem in his style for which he’s known – freeverse poetry in his deep observational writing. In these stories, the author has taken from what he’s seen on the news, and from headlines and stories across the globe reported by brave journalists, and evokes his own heart and compassion in his tellings and interpretations, leaving us, the readers, to absorb the enormity of the effects on human life and the human condition.

Prem introduces his stories with a question at the beginning – ‘Which of us will be Ukraine, tomorrow?’

“People used to think about new car or IPhone, but nobody was thinking about peace. Now, we are dreaming of it. When old people used to wish each other peace, we didn’t understand what they meant. Now we do.”

Every one of Prem’s poems pierced through my heart. I will share here just two of many heartwrenching tellings:

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In okhtyrka (the tsentral’ne)

they are preparing

the cemetery now

in okhtyrka

andriy

and his platoon

are gone

vacuum bombed

air taken

out

of them

and then

they died

~~~

in okhtyrka

they are digging

grave

on grave

I think

the cemetery

or

the tsvyntar

it doesn’t matter

which

there won’t be any funerals held

for awhile

and both of them

will be overrun

before

too long

x

nobody asked us (in russia)

helping them

is treason

here

isolation

is nothing

everything

will be different now

this

is the changing

of our world

back

into darkness

do you know . . .

nobody

asked us

that

is the true

pain

knowing that none

of us

really matter

and to speak

sympathy-

or horror

or sorrow-

for ukraine . . .

that

is a crime

©DGKaye2023