Book Review: Rise

Rise by Neal Sehgal is an anthology of personal poems. It is a collection of esoteric voices that emerged from the author’s soul. Personally, I don’t get poems, but Neal Sehgal’s beautiful book helped me understand a little bit better what’s poetry all about. Maybe the combination of the written word and the amazing artistically strategically situated photographs. A picture is a thousand words anyway. Some of the poems rhyme some don’t. There is no particular form. This is the author’s first collection, and I am sure that future works will be equally or even better in quality.

The poet address issues like falling in love, caring for someone, being hurt by your better half, denial, and bargaining phases are also depicted in some of the poems. I sensed an undertone of loss possibly a failed love relationship the writer had. Lot’s of spiritual and philosophical lyrics describing rhetorical questions to issues that bothered the author at different time periods and unique mindsets. I think I spotted a couple of poems that address animal cruelty and Veganism.

The book in its entirety is very optimistic which I liked. It gave the sense of hope, a sense of never giving up and also how to be able to follow your heart and allowing yourself to thrive physically, emotionally, psychologically and mentally. I am sure the author wrote this book actually to RISE our spirits and hearts and to show us a better version of the life we are already in. Another thing that I found very interesting is that the poems do not have titles or logical order. You can start reading backward and still receive the same information even if you read it from the start.

About ten poems into the book and I started titling the poems. I didn’t want to do it, it just happened. I  don’t know if the author wanted that, or it was the intent, but it was a calming feeling, almost medication type of thing. I continued doing that until I finished the book. After I finished the book, I went back and titled the first ten poems that I skipped at the beginning. Anyway, that made me feel that I helped the author write his poems, it means even that I don’t get poetry this time I managed to connect with the author’s wordings and also go away with a bit of magical poetry in me.

Another item I noticed and I think has a hidden symbolism that the author did not use capital letters after periods and also the word I is always written with a small letter as i. Maybe it’s the artist’s way of showing that we must be humble with ourselves first to be able to see the truth of our thoughts and actions.

Andreas Michaelides

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