Review: Making Tracks by Ian Harding

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Title: Making Tracks
Author: Ian Harding
Genre: Poetry
Release date: August 16th, 2016

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Description:

Ian Harding’s second collection of poems is a celebration of learning through observation. Life’s journey leaves an indelible print carved from the beauty of love and nature with many laughs, questions and twists with each stride. There are poems that offer readers simple observations where others delve deeply searching truths.

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Making Tracks offers a vast collection of themes ensuring everyone can find something to connect with. Although it’s true that all poetry is very personal, this felt—to me—even more than usual. The poems show the observations of the author on all kinds of topics in such a way that you feel like you are getting to know him.

“The room was full of you, and yet
You would not ever enter again.
You were a silent ending
Threaded into a mist of memory.” (excerpt from Closure)

Something I appreciated was how the poems presented ideas that might have gone through my head at any given moment, but I never really put into words. That stems from how universal and even ordinary the themes are, given that they range from emotions to everyday things. My favorites were the ones related to the four seasons and time because they were quite evocative and, as I said before, they felt like my own thoughts put into verses.

“Why is time, a
Wonderful friend, yet
An unwanted pursuer
Without sensibility.” (excerpt from Time)

The language used wasn’t complicated, but the poems themselves weren’t exactly simple. Some were more complex than others and I liked rereading those to better understand them. My only complaint towards this collection, if that’s how you could call this, is that a few poems’ closing lines felt lackluster. That is, the poems started out great and then the last few lines confused me and changed how I felt about them. Regardless, this collection was quite enjoyable and that was just a minor detail I could overlook.

Favorite poems within each section: 

• Sonnets: Canvas, No Place To Be, Closure
• Observations: A Flower, The Watcher, Sign Posts, Time, … And Then, Life Thought, Time Out, See Saw, Realisation
• Humour: Dismissing indifference
• Emotions: Hidden
• Nature: A Thought Planted, Spring Day, Rain Drops