The Dollhouse Mirror Poetry by Frank Watson

The Dollhouse Mirror

Poetry by Frank Watson

© 2014 by Frank Watson

Edited by Boris Komatina

Plum White Press

ISBN-13: 9781939832122

Sofbound, $12.95, 105 pages

Review by Zvi A. Sesling

Frank Watson has written a short (and short poems) volume of poetry which are easy to read and comprehend. There has always been something about short poems that has attracted me to them and Watson’s repertoire succeeds where many I have seen do not.

Here are a few examples of Watson short stuff:

we kiss

in silence

our memories

a journey

that ended

not long ago

------------------

floating in

the midnight smoke

I fade like

the howls of a wolf

on a long, blue night

--------------------

dust in the wind

on the day

we parted our ways

----------------------

the forest

curled up

into a story

of stranded souls

away from city lights

These poems are short, to the point and reveal something of Watson’s thought process and a perhaps unhappy romantic life. It also shows that somewhere buried in the past or present is a touch of depression or insecurity as in these two poems:

he waits

in the crevice

of earth

to sail out

on a gentler day

---------------------

he looks around

but the enemy

is within

And the final poem in the volume which I find sad and I prefer happy endings to poetry books:

there is time

enough for weeping

as the dust settles

and all the books

remain closed

Now while I interpret these poems to be about himself, it possible Watson is observing others and writing down his impressions. Either way they can be so true that a reader

finds himself within these poems.

Not quite haiku, Watson’s micro poetry is most likely eastern based and can be enjoyed as a quick read or a thought provoking set of poems. Though I must admit as one who likes titles, even when a poem’s title is “Untitled” the lack of any titles is a bit disconcerting to me, though probably not to many readers who will enjoy these poems for what they are.

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Zvi A. Sesling

Author, King of the Jungle (Ibbetson St., 2010) and Across Stones of Bad Dreams (Cervena Barva Press, 2011), Editor, Muddy River Poetry Review,Editor, Bagel Bards Anthology 7& Bagel Bard Anthology 8.