Review: Three Women: A Poetic Triptych and Selected Poems

Title: Three Women: A Poetic Triptych and Selected Poems

Author: Emma Edem Ramos

Publisher/format: Chapbook, published by Heavy Hands Ink

How I got this:  Downloaded from here; here in order to review. 

Synopsis (From Goodreads.com): "A truly unique and awe-inspiring collection, Emma Eden Ramos wows readers with her narrative-style writing in Three Women: A Poetic Triptych and Selected Poems. This is the fifth chapbook to be released by Heavy Hands Ink." -Heavy Hands Ink

Review:

It’s not often I read poetry, but when I was asked to review this, I was intrigued, and I thought I’d go for it.  Firstly, I have to admit, I had no idea what a ‘Triptych’ was, and I figured that it was as good a starting point as any, so I looked it up.  Basically, a triptych is a work of art which is split into three pieces, often with the centre piece being the largest.  I have to admit, this intrigued me even more, and let me tell you, this is definitely a work of art. 

The first fold of this is entitled introductions – and does exactly what it says on the tin, in what I perceived to be beautiful prose.  It offers small snapshots into the tragic lives of the women it describes which are both poignant and heartfelt. 

The second section (Impressions) again circles through women, each dealing with the issues discussed in the piece in individual ways.  The third fold (Connections) brings the events of the previous two sections together, and I think this was the part that really got me thinking.  For me, it made me realize that there are probably more to people than you first perceive, and that people deal with things in different ways. 

Following this, there are several poems, which also broach fairly sensitive and/or controversial subjects, but again, it’s like a snapshot into the mind of the people it’s describing.  It’s all written about with such succinct thought, I’m sure it would be difficult for anyone to find offensive. 

As I said, I don’t know an awful lot about poetry, but as far as I’m concerned, this was both thought provoking and well written.  I’d recommend this to anyone who has even a slight interest in poetry, and probably to some of those who don’t.  Of course, it’s a fairly sensitive subject, but it’s written about with such a level of care and compassion, it feels very personal and because of that, it’s very thought provoking.   

In terms of giving this a rating, I’m not using my normal rating scale, because somehow that just doesn’t seem right for this kind of work – my scale works well on novels and novellas, but probably isn’t applicable to poetry.  So all I’m going to say  is that I’d recommend reading this – just beautiful.