Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.
Title: Spring Delusions: Chaotic Poems of Despair and Blooming Hope
Author: Zahra Ammar
Genre: Poetry
Release date: September 19th, 2016
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Description:
Words are our only tools to express the physicality of the chaos in our minds. It is tedious and painstaking process to create something, anything. Emotions are not words, hence, to put them as such, requires quite a bit of searching, meandering and stumbling. I believe my affair with these alphabets will never be satiated. Yet, I have tried to sing some broken tunes, sketched some bleakness and shared fragments of my inner hope.
I have often had a love hate relationship with poetry. Its enigmatic power has often left me confused but also enlightened me. Although rhymes are fun and easy to tap your foot to, it is the rhythm or sometimes, the lack of it that can truly sear through the heart. For me, simplicity is key. It is graceful. It is alluring.
Each poem is handwritten, followed by typewrite for easy bookmarking and commenting and is accompanied by an illustration, meticulously and thoughtfully crafted. I refuse to acknowledge that illustrations are for children’s books only. There is no age limit to vision. Seeing is as much a part of feeling as reading and imagining is. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have in making them.
The poems I write do not follow any rule in particular. Although well-versed in writing verses, I opt to experiment with a variety of things, from alliteration to repetitions, and rhyme to meters, and mirroring to collating. Some poems have written themselves. Some, I have agonized over for days and nights. Writing and rewriting, getting it just right and then starting all over again. It is an organized pandemonium of the human self.
This short collection shows that it was assembled with a lot a heart and dedication. Each poem is followed by an illustration done by the author (who also did the cover!) and she also included all the poems handwritten at the end of the book. I read this comfortably on my Kindle, but I wish I could have read it somewhere else to appreciate the pictures better. I could tell they were beautiful. They went really well with each poem and gave me an insight into what they might mean for the author.
“I hinge my hopes on destiny
I dump my tragedies on fate”
Most of the poems have a certain rythym to them that I enjoyed and I can only describe it as fragmented, almost like stream of consciousness. Even though I could identify a similar rythym among the poems, I found the collection itself quite eclectic. The author varies and plays with the poems, each bringing something different to the table. I hadn’t read a collection like this before, so it was a pleasant surprise.
As for the themes, hope was the most prevalent for me. A few poems were lost on me and I couldn’t quite connect with them or figure out how they made me feel.
“Death and life are one and the same
They are both beginnings, means to an end
Life an affair, a fling, a crush
A marriage to death is an eternal one”
I read this collection two times because, even though the poems thrive on simplicity, they also demand reflection. I caught different meanings on my second reading and I’m sure that when I read it again in the future, I’ll find something new.
Favorite Poems: I, V, VII, IX, XII, XV, XVII
Chapter Adventures 
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