Westward: Guided by Starfalls and Moonbows

by Nina Romano

This remarkable book began as series of poems the writer sent to her brother during the last year of his life. It is a meditation on the eternal fascination of the west, often through the eyes of a series of personae. Romano sets the theme in this book of poetry with so many lines...

78 pages, Paperback

Published October 6, 2015

About the author

Nina Romano's latest novel, Dark Eyes, a Russian historical thriller, hit #1 in Russian and Soviet Literature E-books on Amazon on 2/13/2023 Pre-order. The print release date was February 24, 2023.

The Girl Who Loved Cayo Bradley, a Western, Historical Romance is Book 1 in the Darby's Quest series and a stand-alone novel. It covers a great deal of Apache and Native American history and lore in New Mexico, is a well-researched novel, and a semi-finalist in the Laramie Book Awards. It was released October 2021 by Speaking Volumes, LLC.

Romano's Wayfarer Trilogy has been published by Turner Publishing. Book #1 of the Historical Saga: The Secret Language of Women was a Foreword Reviews Indie-Fab Book Award Finalist. The novel won the Independent Publisher 2016 IPPY Gold Medal in the Historical/Romance Book Awards. Book #2 of the series, Lemon Blossoms was a finalist in the Foreword INDIES Reviews Book #3, In America, was a finalist in the 2016 Chanticleer Media's Chatelaine Book Awards for Romance.

Nina Romano earned a B.S. from Ithaca College, an M. A. from Adelphi University and a B. A., and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from FIU. She’s a world traveler and lover of history. She lived in Rome, Italy, for twenty years, and is fluent in Italian and Spanish. She authored a short story collection, The Other Side of the Gates, five poetry collections, and two poetry chapbooks. Her most recent collection, Westward: Guided by Starfalls and Moonbows, was published from LLC Red Dashboard. She co-authored, Writing in a Changing World. Romano has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize.

Reviews

[Lis Anna-Langston · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. I love this book so much I don't even want to mark it as read because I'm going to re-read it a hundred more times. I descend from a long line of Cherokee and was raised with a medicine bag around my neck. I romanticize the desert. I lived on the land my ancestors fled when they moved west. This book of poetry takes me back to mornings in Taos, afternoons on the Navejo land, deep into the mountains where the Cherokee still live. They don't reflect my experience but they conjure enough depth and imagery that made me love this book. If you are guided by starfalls and moonbeams, then this book of poetry is for you.

[Sandra Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I saw that Ms. Romano had a poem in this collection called “All the Pretty Horses,” I knew I must have it. I, too, love Cormac McCarthy’s unpunctuated language and that movie’s soundtrack is one of my favorites! Romano’s poem did not disappoint. I loved the book’s first poem, “Moving Westward.” Her collection is rooted in place and storytelling, and when I learned she wrote and shared these verses with her dying brother, the bond of a love of the great unsettled west rang loud and true. What a gift!

Romano’s poem “About the Thirteen Moons on the Turtle’s Back” is a treasure of imagery the Mohawk and Cherokee of the East would have cherished. All the seasons, the moons that “will hang / long after we no longer / trod the Earth ....” drawn so vividly by the poet. “Daybreak” is gentle and bittersweet. “In the Root Cellar” takes us to a cool place, a list poem with all the senses, so rooted in a time and place. All the places, the scenes, God’s creations before mankind ravaged it—the poet has told the land’s stories with reverence.

The Westward collection, “Guided by Starfalls and Moonbows” is like time travel, and I enjoyed the trip!

[J.D. DeHart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poet Nina Romano offers poems that explore the universe inside the mind, and across the universe in Westward: Guided by Starfalls and Moonbows. Romano's poems tell stories of earth and her lines often range from one side of the page all the way to the other.

Consider these lines from "Cayo Bradley." "By nightfall, a starry backdrop/of sky appears/whilst a curtain of haze halos the moon to shine." Westward is full of such lyrical work, and Romano arranges her words on the page with skill. Another favorite poem here, "All The Pretty Horses," is written (most appropriately) in honor of Cormac McCarthy.

"The Rogue River" serves as an example of shorter lines, all packed into one seamless stream of poetry, with no stanza breaks. Here, Romano offers an homage to the "symphonic tribute" of nature.

These are just a few examples, and there are many more to discover in this collection.

[Jane Brownley · Rating 5 out of 5]

0Nina Romano's latest collection, dedicated to the memory of her brother, is at once imaginative and illusive yet rooted in the plains, the prairies, the mountains, the hills and the riverbeds of the WEST.
This is a fantastic grouping of poems that is as powerful as the pioneers who conquered and settled the frontier. The poet's love of Indian and cowboy lore is exquisitely rendered in these pages. I heartily recommend this book for readers, not just poetry lovers, and not just lovers of history! I found it to be a breath-taking, sweeping vista of a landscape that will be forever etched in our minds and hearts.