Penny loves to travel!
I received this lovely 5-Star review for A Penny for Your Thoughts from Victoria Wagner Ross, renowned reviewer, formerly of the San Diego Examiner…
“Award-winning children’s author, Sherrill S. Cannon, released her new endeavor about life and love in her debut poetry book, A Penny for Your Thoughts, which has already received nine awards. This thoughtful book of one-hundred fifty-four poems is simply the most beautiful presentation describing the heart and anguish exploring love and friendship. Thoughts of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and her sensitive sonnets of love and deeply felt emotions are shadows in Cannon’s poems. The lovely style of blending and weaving words evoke the range of sentiments. The poetry touches on topics of age, youth, nature, and love with deep encounters with oneself such as “My Tree” and the following excerpt from the “Frozen Wasteland.”
“I was living in a wasteland
Where nothing new would grow,
Except to just grow older
Underneath the freezing snow”
The last part of the poem brings joy,“But you came to me and took me From the Winter of my heart.”
Ms. Cannon shares her thoughts about the evolution in writing this book of profoundly absorbing poems. “As a teacher, I used poetry to help counsel many troubled teens and friends, and have continued this pattern throughout the years.” You can see the pain and intense depth of these conversations in the lines of the various poems.
She artfully divided her book into three sections: Heads – Of Love and Friendship, Spinning – Of Related Emotions, and Tails – Of Heartache and Anguish. Could love result in a coin toss? The variety of poetic forms includes the free verse, blank verse, haiku, and sonnets. Some poems are merely her playful interpretation of words.
In the Heads section – the entry named “Reunion” speaks of the beautiful, uplifting emotion of hope and love resumed after time apart. “The time that we were absent…From each other, only links the yesterdays…” to “…In time – A brief interlude before resuming where we are today”.
We travel through the heart’s beats in life and find in the final section her poems speak of the loss in “All That’s Left”, and “Love’s Seasons” among other entries. The pain of the love’s cycles in life is a vibrant vision in “Migration” which poignantly takes us into the depths of life.
“I think I flew further north than I
Meant to. Everything is strange and cold.
Even the trees are different – and the sky
Is not the same. Is it that I’ve grown old?”
Ms. Cannon has brilliantly explored the feelings of longing and joy, parting and sadness as did Ms. Browning passionately joined the pleasure of “Meeting at Night” and poignant “Parting at Morning.”
“Winter”, in the final section in Cannon’s book draws us into the last days of life and love. “I do not think – I know I do not care… To stoke the frozen ashes of my heart.”The final section captures the result of time spent traveling on life’s journey and the joy and pain of relationships including finality in our lives. Her final poetic entre in the impressive work is “Yester-Day” and allows us to feel the gay and happy time of youth, the springtime ecstasy and the final days barren from bloom. The words haunt us as we close the page.
Ms. Cannon announced that this would be her last effort as an author but the success of her poetry in her first entry has spurred her to reconsider, and a new book of poems is in the future. She has created a companion titled A Dime is a Sign to her current work with a planned release in September 2018.
Kj of Kalpart has been the illustrator of Ms. Cannon’s nine award-winning children’s book covers and serves us a vibrant cover for this debut poetry book. The upcoming poetry work will echo the current theme and provide a visual link between the two books. The interior pages display each poem in black, gray and white which accent the simple elegance of the lyrics.
The poems leave the reader with a desire to reflect upon the words and step back to read again. It is a deeply emotional journey that one desires like a quiet walk in the woods or sitting by a stream. Each artfully written poem is best sipped and savored. The various formats employed for the lyrics allow the reader to enjoy it visually while reading at one’s pace.
Ms. Cannon set a descriptive subtitle, “Poems of Love and Loss (Feelings Into Words)”. She delivered that notation with great love and sensitive empathy as she describes her work and accredits it for her creativity. She writes in her book’s Dedication page that “No one understands. They think that I am writing of the feelings that I feel – When really all I do is feel what someone else would probably feel.”
A Penny for Your Thoughts has won six Gold Medal awards to date: Poetry Winner Category of the Readers Views Reviewers Choice Award as well as a Specialty Award for Poetry, and achieved Winner of the Feathered Quill Awards, the Book Excellence Poetry Award, the eLit Poetry Award, the Los Angeles Book Festival Awards, the New Apple eBook Awards, and a Pinnacle Achievement Award, as well as a Silver Medal in the FAPA Awards and a Bronze in the Global eBook Awards.
Sherrill S. Cannon grew up in the Willard Hotel in Washington, DC and is the original Eloise! She has received sixty-three awards as of this date for her books which are distributed globally on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Her website is http://sbprabooks.com/sherrillscannon
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