And Still I Had These Dreams

Thank you Steven Lester Carr for the fabulous book review of "And Still I Had These Dreams," and for your support.
The book is available on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Still-Had-Thes...

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I now have five of Christine Tabaka's books – all collections of her poetry - having just added her And Still I had These Dreams to the space on my bookshelves reserved for her works. In each of her collections before this one I have pointed out how personal her poetry is. She writes of her sorrow and pain like few other poets around. But what I haven’t mentioned before, and is so evident in And Still I Had These Dreams is her talent for making connections between her heart and the world she sees and experiences around her. She has the innate talent for observing the smallest of details and putting those observations in poetic phrases that can make you soar or make you weep. A plastic bird becomes a reminder of a loving marriage in “Yard Kitsch.” A plant has never been so forlorned as the one in “My Garden.” She takes us with her on a trip, familiar to most of us, to the “Coffee Shop.” A sparrow becomes a symbol of longing and regret in “Going Away.” “A Popcorn Afternoon” is an unstated ode to that simplest of pleasure, the popcorn kernel. Those are just a few of the examples in which Christine stirs our emotions not just with what we hear in her words, but what we see through her observations. For those of us who are fans of her work, and there are many of us, And Still I Had These Dreams also has poems that reach into your chest and makes your heart stop beating for a moment because of their raw emotion. But consider the connections Christine makes with most of her poetry, said perfectly in the last line of her title poem, “I succumb to the reality set before me. And still I had these dreams.” This book, published by the estimable Clarendon House Publications, and her others are available on Amazon.