We pick flowers, knowing they will die. We press flowers, hoping they will survive.
When flowers are picked, they die. But not always. Sometimes we love them enough to press them between the pages of a book in the hopes of preserving the beauty of their memory. So it is when a poem is read. It dies. But not always. Like flowers, there are some poems we want to preserve, remember, and cherish. Those are the poems we press between the pages of a book.
This ebook is a collection of my pressed flowers. Those poems I wish to preserve from my retired and active books.
Bianca Bowers is an award-winning fiction author and best-selling poetry author. Now based in Australia, she holds a BA with double majors in English and Film/TV/Media Studies, and has authored eight books through her imprints Paperfields Press and Auteur Books: six poetry collections and 2 novels.
With almost religious zeal in her poetry collection “Pressed Flowers” Bianca Bowers explores the depths of life, death and love through vivid imagery.
Ms Bowers’ new poetry book comprises three sections: “Death and Life”, “Passage” and “Love Is A Song She Sang From A Cage”. And although the poems in all these sections come from already published books, the present selection paints a fascinating and unexpected picture.
Multiple layers are characteristic of Bianca Bowers’ poetry and this is true also of the first section of “Pressed Flowers” – in “Death and Life” death too is multifaceted. The poet finds it not only in actual physical death, but also in different forms of loss, depression, exile, etc. But all manifestations of death present a chance for growth and rebirth. As the poet herself says, “from death comes life”.
Reading the poems from the section “Passage” was also extremely intriguing for me, reminding me of the rites of passage that could be found in many cultures around the world. But although the rituals described by poet Bianca Bowers are of her own making, they are charged with the potential to touch different audiences with their imagery, emotions and stories.
The last section “Love Is A Song She Sang From A Cage” features the different faces of love. The poet, a master of impersonations, skillfully conducts the reader through the emotional states of the lyrical persona.
In “Pressed Flowers” Ms Bowers does not disappoint her audience, offering masterfully crafted verse. All her poems tell a story painted with unexpected and thought-provoking imagery.
Having discovered “Love Is A Song She Sang From A Cage” by chance in the last months of 2017, I suppose you can imagine how happy I was when I learned that Bianca Bowers has published a new collection of poems!
Let us not leave her poems pressed between the pages of the book, but set them freely roaming the world by reading them! “Pressed Flowers” deserves to be read, remembered and cherished and least but not last - reviewed!
"We pick flowers, knowing they will die. We press flowers, hoping they will survive."
These were the first few lines I have read by this author and I instantly knew I had found a great thinker, careful to details, full of emotion and life experience.
I think poetry should be read in small doses, few at a time - poetry is like honey - delicious, intoxicating - so much emotion is expressed in just a few words.
My favorite poems from this collection are:
Blue Butterfly -
“Time is powerless to smudge her memory Her blue wings at peace in my heart”
Insomnia Yesterday Merlot Heart Proposal Monarch Trapped Lotus in the Sahara In the End The Memory of Water September Palace My ghost bekons me Love is a song Branches Love Paradigm.
I was planning to buy this book but I have received a free copy of this collection because I have subscribed to Bianca Bowers's newsletter on her website.
I'm looking forward to reading Butterfly Voyage (her fifth poetry book) and her upcoming novels as well.
A voice that strikes cords - I highly recommend reading her work.