Reviewer: Anna Citrino, author of A Space Between, Saudade, and To Find a River.

Reviewer: Anna Citrino, author of A Space Between, Saudade, and To Find a River.

Reviewer: Anna Citrino, author of A Space Between, Saudade, and To Find a River.

Michael L. Newell’s book, Each Step a Discovery, speaks volumes in a few words. Having read all of Newell’s books, his newest book, Each Step a Discovery, is yet another wonderful read. As he explains in the forward, the book contains what Newell calls miniatures, his own form of very short pieces. As I read through the book, I found myself carried inside moments of awe and reverie. Mountains, forests, rain, moon, and fields are common subjects in the book. But the writing does much more than simply show readers the natural world, it brings you into the heart of a specific moment and enables you to dwell there, feel its spark, its life, experience its unique quality. In the following pie

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Michael L. Newell’s book, Each Step a Discovery, speaks volumes in a few words. Having read all of Newell’s books, his newest book, Each Step a Discovery, is yet another wonderful read. As he explains in the forward, the book contains what Newell calls miniatures, his own form of very short pieces. As I read through the book, I found myself carried inside moments of awe and reverie. Mountains, forests, rain, moon, and fields are common subjects in the book. But the writing does much more than simply show readers the natural world, it brings you into the heart of a specific moment and enables you to dwell there, feel its spark, its life, experience its unique quality. In the following piece, each line unfolds as a distinct visual experience. 

shafts of moonlight
sewn by slanting needles
icy autumn rain 

The description of rain as needles, is piercing in itself, but to follow it with “icy” on the next line, and the chill water gets as close to drilling into the body as one can get while using words.

 

Many of Newell’s miniatures startled me with their beauty, as did this one.

through open window
moonlight finds a home
in half-filled teacup 

Reading this miniature is like viewing a painting. The temperature of the room, the quiet reflection in the cup. I’m totally in the moment seeing the detail. Newell repeatedly paints distinctive word images, as in “Autumn Song,” where he follows up the image with a statement that opens up the piece to something much larger. 

swaying from a wintry branch,
one final golden leaf–
all beauty contains grief. 

Whether writing about rabbits huddled in snow drifts or an old couple on the street to a city at night Newell’s miniatures bring the reader into direct sensory experiences, each filled with the kind of close observation that arises from long-time practice of deep observation. Each miniature creates a distinctive mood and evokes a world, 

sun fills one side of a valley
rain the other
I’m lost in the sky 

In his descriptions of the world from rural America, Bolivia, Estonia, Rwanda and on across the world, to spend time reading Newell’s miniatures in Each Step a Discovery is to walk alongside a writer whose voice shows you how to pause, to listen, and to notice the world alive all around you. For those longing to breathe in life more fully, this newest book of Michael L. Newell’s miniatures is one to be sure to read and return to.