Walking the Earth is an inspirational anthology, exhibiting varied paths its seven poets ponder upon with wide-ranging points of view. In poet Vivian Gilbert Zabel's words, "Once we breathe first air/ We begin a journey/ Along a narrow path." In fact this book's journey does travel "in faith to the end" since this compilation suggests a global, humanistic viewpoint throughout the poetry inside it.

Walking the Earth is not an anthology of any rigid stance and style or any precise group and nationality. In that sense, the general outlook of the book is motivational and the collection is diverse in its use of language and approach.

Inside the book are 137 poems and eight chapters, each pointing to a different topic. The chapters are: Enjoying Sunshine, Path of Life, Hidden in the Shadows, Views of Roses and Thorns, Love's Lyrics and Laments, Looking at Childhood, Growing Older, and Traveling in Faith.

While the poems stretch in voice and vitality and each poem points to a continent of its own, all poems reveal a strong attachment to life when crossing the terrain of a poet's soul. In I Walk for Me, Diane Steele asserts this attitude with "I begin my carefree saunter/ And choose my pace." On his path, T. Larkin views himself as: "I wear the masks that mark my fakery/ slipping from one to the other without ever/finding a face of my own."

In False Promises, Kimberly Ligameri chides life with, "Tantalizing me with false promises,/you play me for a fool./What a wicked game/ I let you play." Becky Simpson is more optimistic in Inches when she decides to be an inchworm and "go/to a goal beyond my sight/going from shadow to light."

On the subject of motherhood, Holly Jahangiri shows her practicality and good humor with: "I pray I go to Heaven long before/My children come a-knocking on God's door/A brief respite, that's all I ask of Him:/Self-cleaning carpet and self-mopping floor."

Jacque Graham aims for the divine in The Light that Shines: "Our flame is but one,/Fed by faith and by hope."

An effective art of metaphor delights the reader with "In the Brook" by poet Robert E. Blackwell: "My eyes beheld another dream/Its sparkles dancing with the tide/And I arose and took the plunge/Into the waters to meet it."

any school or family library.

the idea of dividing the anthology into eight chapters as life's different paths and the underlying inspirational messages that show up throughout the book.

happy that seven authors from Writing.com were featured.

The editors are: Vivian Zabel, Holly Jahangiri, Becky Simpson, and Robert Blackwell
The seven poets of Walking the Earth, Writing.com poets. With professional writers and English teachers among them, they have other books in publication and a gamut of publishing credits.

its four editors have shied away from what is ugly, disturbing, or shocking.

Walking the Earth (ISBN 1411644476) is 178 pages in paperback and clear and legible print, with a table of contents in front and writer biographies and an index at the end.

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Created Sep 30, 2006 at 10:47am • Submit your own review...