"My soul cries tears that fall like rain, I'm addicted and can't abstain, It's as if my life was in vain, drained of everything but my pain. Fearing the hurt fate will impart, my soul cries tears." An excerpt from page 298 (My Soul Cries Tears)
Emile J Pinet's A Match in the Dark is a collection of mind-blowing poems that got me feeling emotional, reminiscent, and contemplating. I spent considerable time digesting each poem as I read alongside. It is so factual, realistic, profound, and philosophical.
This book is a collection of numerous poems that expound on different themes ranging from humanism to hope, despair, environmentalism, tragedy, aging, political instability, and several other themes encapsulated in it. I need to say that I was engrossed while reading through this anthology. I was taken aback by the poem titled "They Stole Her Child," it's a saddening entreaty and regret of someone whose child was snatched away. It's so raw and passionate in tone, it reminded me of the poems of Kwame.
Reading through the pages of "A Poet's Words" describes poets and the making of their works, the lines and stanzas of the poem titled "Soul Cannot Die" had me thinking deeply about the condition of the human spirit and nature. Some poems within this collection touch on the theme of Global warming, Asylums seekers, Love and Empathy, Death, Pain, Depression, Deceitfulness, Afterlife, Friendship, Politics, and the condition of the human conscience. The poems titled "Kindness and Tears" had me resonating with the current Russian-Ukrainian war, and what pain most people would be passing through.
The book also contains some narrative poems, many of which intrigues me are the ones titled "Angels Danced," which expounds on the story of how a young lad lost his dear mother, this part is so raw and it almost pulls me to tears. I admire the depth of questions raised in the poem titled, "Who's First To Go". I also admire the fact that some poems within this anthology obey some poetic literary features, many of which are extremely new to me, which provides a better way to learn about poetry. There are lots of poems that resonate with me, some speak to me in volume, and some address my fears, tears, sorrows, and questions, it is so relatable.
This book seems to be a perfect literary work, it seems to me like a piece of writing from a man who has passed through a lot of life's "ups and downs," a man who has an acute sense of observing his environment, a man that has a vast idea of what has gone wrong with the human race. Another section of this book contains poems from the author's friends, many of which resonate with several insightful topics that made for a profound discussion.
Reading through this book had me emotional, it had me thinking about the meaning of life, and the purpose of existence. There are lots of poems that I value so much, and Emile Pinet did a great job at putting this awesome poem together. There is also a brief definition of some poetic literary words as used in the book like Limerick, Acrostic, Yalto, Free Verse, Alliteration, Prose Poetry, Sonnet, Ballad, among many others.
Undoubtedly, Emile J Pinet is a fantastic poet whose choice of words is so philosophical, ethical, and life-saving. I jot some quotes that I'm going to imbibe in my life. I shall restrict from revealing further as an attempt to keep this review spoiler-free and I'll love to recommend this book to lovers of poetry and literature at large.