Selected Poems By Steen Anderson - Review by LB Sedlacek

Selected Poems
By Steen Anderson
Copyright 2021
70 pages
ISBN: 978-93-90601-15-8
Cyberwit.net
http://www.cyberwit.net

Review by LB Sedlacek


Steen writes gripping, thrilling poems in this thoughtful collection.  It’s everything you’d want in a poetry book.  His lines get under your skin as if he gets how you really feel.  

The book is divided into 8 poem sections.  Each one seems to build on the last, but each one also stands on its own.  His words draw you in, he writes with a unique voice and sense of self.  

From “Islands”:  “Headstones glitter in the sun / there was never a church over there / the dead are in a place where they didn’t belong….”   Those are the lines that start off the island poems.  From a graveyard, to flowers, to boat travel, to the sea, the horizon – Anderson expertly navigates each page into a poem of wonder, adventure and compelling verse.  

“Insomnia is insistent here,” “Pictures arrange themselves on the walls,” “To chase the day, that’s their constant saying,” “The lines and colours of the map are just an image” are some of the delicate lines you will find in these poems.  Each poem draws you in.

My favorite poem was from the “Boundaries” section.  Here are the beginning lines:  “She’s close to the painting / as if she wants to breathe in the smell of oils / to return to its making….”  These lines are full of possibilities such as being in an art museum, speaking to a stranger, speaking the person in the painting, and so on.  

Anderson has an authentic way of writing.  His is an essential voice.  This is a good book of poetry.