My Sweet Aroma by Timothy Green is comprised of poems exploring romance and spiritual life.
The oversized book contains more than 200 poems. Many are written in the second person, such as “Your Palette,” which begins, “You smudged me by the sea/ with personality finding company./ The brush blushed in art/ to the corner of her brow/ brought back to life somehow.” These lines are typical of the collection’s poems in their appealing focus on courtship and its enchantments.
The author also often explores religion; for instance, “On the train” ends with: “Silence is smothered,/ covered in glitter/ as my Father is./ His voice I know well./ Come to me, my Father,/ and deliver me./ The journey, my destination,/ I feel frustration/ that you won’t feel/ or know.”
Quirky internal rhymes occasionally provide thought-provoking interest, as in “Take Me Home (Version 1)”: “Heart protected in chrome./ Shalom and peace the antidote./ Honeycomb for food-vacated moon./ My syndrome staying home.”
Most of the work, however, contains flaws that undermine its strengths. The poems are replete with confusing syntax: “Be careful of what you let in./ Brilliance of a sane made me smile…” They can also be prosaic and often feel more like jottings than a unified art work; for example, “My Famous Follower” begins: “Brought to justice,/ Learning his lessons./ Must have been born/ into such distress./ Depression measured thinly,/ becoming one place…”
The books presentation is equally problematic. The cursive typeface is hard to read, and the poems are ordered alphabetically by title, missing the opportunity to present the work with an emotional or narrative arc.
While My Sweet Aroma may appeal to Christian readers who enjoy learning about another follower’s spiritual homecoming, the collection never coalesces into a well-crafted experience for general fans of contemporary poetry.
Also available as an ebook.
