I had an online reader link to Awe and Other Words Like Wow: Poem by Kat Georges. I was somewhat excited because I had no idea
what it was going to be like. I had little description and since it was one of my older saved links, I had forgotten why I had saved it in the first place. I only knew it was poetry because it said Poem. I clicked on the Click Here to Read Button and this image of a gray hair (I assumed) man in a car (assumed car, it looked like a car) came up (but I was on my phone so it was a small screen and it was late and I wasn’t wearing my glasses as I was laying down and wanted to rest a bit with some relaxing poetry before bed). These split second thoughts flooded my head: The cover changed? No, that is not the right title or author. Is it the same book? And as I clicked back to the link I noticed it was not only a different cover, but a different title and author and guess what? A different book entirely. It was Life in the Past Lane by Peter Carlaftes. However, it was still a poetry collection and both are due late September 2023.
So, I started it as I thought it could be interesting and if I did not like it nothing said I have to finish it, right?
I might not have understood everything or even liked it, but the majority of the poems are mini stories with understandable wording and word pictures that pop up into your mind. You see the drunks (sometimes the author himself) harassing, the homeless people of the city, the police, the crazy exes, the young kids, the bartenders and more. Things are not flowery, or pretentious for the most part. Sure, some are “poetic” but this feels like the everyday man talking about everyday stuff. Life, loving, drinking, marriage, kids, and all that crap, all done in a raw and humorous (sometimes) way. And while there might be a “deep message” or “meaning” to everything, the nice part is you can read it as the “surface story” and really are not losing anything in the process.
