Iris Moore’s Blossoms of Light: An Oasis for the Soul is a collection of poems that seek to inspire, heal, and uplift. The poetry relies on gentle, natural imagery, invocations of the divine, and epigrammatic passages.
Moore’s entries are generally calm, sometimes rhyme, and keep a steady pace with short and medium-length lines. The author sees life as a journey and every experience as a learning opportunity, despite the unpredictability of the future. Her poems focus on growth and flourishing and carry messages of renewal and harmony. For example, “The Music” uses water imagery to symbolize soulful renewal: “The music plays, and I begin to know/ The place of my innocence./ I feel the stream of my love/ Coursing through my body,/ Awakening my cells to joy and truth.”
In some poems, Moore expresses the hardship of keeping one’s self separate from God, as in: “How long, O God/ Have I looked through/ Glasses streaked with pain/ At a world I saw as separate/ From myself?”
Inspirational stock photographs —such as two people jumping joyfully in the sunset holding big hearts made of light— accompany the poems. They lend a greeting card feel to the book, as do many of the poems themselves, which are often sentimental and peppered with platitudes. For example: “Love is the laughter we cannot deny/ The healing that happens/ When we give up the ‘try.’” Or: “My God,/ I celebrate my LOVE for You…/ I celebrate my dreams come true.”
Overall, the collection lacks the sophistication that would attract readers of more accomplished contemporary poetry. But Moore’s book will be inspirational for those looking for poems that are more like short prayers. They don’t tell specific stories, but they do speak in pleasing cadences and encourage readers to embrace the healing, accepting power of The Holy Spirit.
Also available as an ebook.
