An EveryDay Thing by Nancy Richardson

source: free review copy via Poetic Book Tours
title:  An Everyday Thing
author: Nancy Richardson
genre: poetry
published: July 27, 2018
pages: 53

About:
Richardson’s poems concern coming of age in the rust-belt of Ohio during a period of decay of the physical and political structures that made the region once solid and predictable. Her poems chart the shifting of the foundations upon which a life is built and the unpredictability of events that have profound personal and political consequences, including the shootings at Kent State University.

My thoughts:

I love reading poetry, there is something special about it. I like it when poems conjure up feelings and emotions. I feel everyone interprets poems differently, it is a personal thing. I enjoy reading poems over and over again to get a feel for them. Today I am sharing my thoughts on a collection of poems called An Everyday Thing by Nancy Richardson.

The poems in this collection touch on a few things like the shooting at Kent State University in 1970 and the trial, to politics to love and loss and just everyday life. My favorite in this set was Shredding Old Love Letters.  I like the last line especially.

“Sorry seems to be the  hardest
word. Sorry that I never knew
what became of all the time.
Sorry that something deep inside
died when we said goodbye.
Sorry you were once here
and now you are running through
my fingers like vintage wine…”

Another favorite was Queen Anne’s Lace:

“The world might hold
such a design. Delicacy
in the midst of loss. Not for her
the recitation of the rosary
of sorrow. All of life was
ahead of us and now I see
the lesson for what it was.”

I found this to be an interesting collection of poetry and enjoyed reading it. It felt like a glimpse into the author’s life and thoughts which is what poetry is after all.

This has been part of a virtual tour for Poetic Book Tours, see the full schedule below.

Blog Tour Schedule:

July 11: Diary of an Eccentric (Guest Post)
July 19: Ethereal Pages (Review)
July 31: Modern Creative Life (Poem)
Aug. 18 The Book Lovers Boudoir (Review)
Aug. 20: Necromancy Never Pays (Review)
Aug. 21: The Book Connection (Review)
Aug. 24: The Bookworm (Review)
Aug. 28: Wall-to-Wall Books (Review)
Sept. 14: True Book Addict (Review)
Sept. 21: Readaholic Zone (Review)
Oct. 11: Modern Creative Life (Essay)

Buy the book at Finishing Line Press
Buy on Amazon.

About the Poet:

Nancy Richardson’s poems have appeared in journals anthologies. She has written two chapbooks. The first, Unwelcomed Guest (2013) by Main Street Rag Publishing Company and the second, the Fire’s Edge (2017) by Finishing Line Press concerned her formative youth in the rust-belt of Ohio and the dislocation, including the Kent State shootings that affected her young adulthood. In An Everyday Thing, she has included those poems and extended the narrative to memories of persons and events and the make a life.

She has spent a good deal of her professional life working in government and education at the local, state, and federal levels and as a policy liaison in the U.S. Office of the Secretary of Education and for the Governor of Massachusetts. She received an MFA in Writing from Vermont College in 2005 and has served on the Board of the Frost Place in Franconia, NH. Visit her website.

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disclaimer: This review is my honest opinion. I did not receive any kind of compensation for reading and reviewing this book. I am under no obligation to write a positive review. I received my free copy of  An Everyday Thing by Nancy Richardson via Poetic Book Tours.

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