POETRY CUSTOMER REVIEWS ON
AMAZON, BARNES & NOBLE, KOBO
If you liked my book, please post a review by clicking on AMAZON. Scroll down to Customer Reviews to the button below Review this product.
Jane Metcalfe
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 November 2020
Freddy Fonseca’s substantial collection of rich poems span many lifetimes of living: contemplation, humour, spirituality, nature, love and of course God. Poetry is a specific way of reaching our hearts and souls without the need to understand in a linear fashion. Freddy’s poems have the ability, through skill and acute observation, to reach all the parts of us. I will keep dipping back into this collection when I need to to be reinspired. A writer after my own heart!
Amazon Customer
Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2020
Such a joy to add to the world of literature and poetry.
This collection is an instant classic. It takes us across
continents and cultures; across time and space. This
poet has passion and intellect that are very much
alive and alert. Embrace this collection and experience
all of the joy, sorrow, humor, and wit.
Amazon Customer
Blow something up! The highest first!
Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2020
Some poets write in the hopes of finding something
hidden in their souls, while others write to achieve
recognition. Others write as an escape from the
quotidian, the mundane, or perhaps to glimpse
something eternal or, with luck, slightly sacred. And
some poets, like Freddy, write because not to do so
just isn’t realistic. Freddy’s poems are like sorties into
boundless arenas of possibility, some familiar or
intimate, others verging on the unnameable.
Some poems cleave to a central thread without
becoming enmeshed in the conformity of traditional
forms. At times, one feels his aim is to get the thoughts
into our hearts and minds, just simply and immediately
— dismissing the too familiar economy that so easily
“looks like poetry.” The thing is, Freddy really is a poet:
what comes out is by definition something well apart
from artifice.
Among other surprises, some poems seem at first
curiously incomplete until the reader succumbs and
delivers the words himself, out loud, to the world. This
is what Freddy likes best, the song, the performance,
the dance. If the reader cares to take that leap, then a
surprising collaboration emerges between the poet’s
art and the reader’s heart.
At times, the poems closest to prose exhibit the finest
fluency; “Kaleidoscope” is a case in point: one sentence
per verse, no syntactical puzzles, no obscurity. One
verse: “My fragmentation negates / the way I used to
be, and there’s / an unseen rift I cannot touch / behind
these splinters of deceit.” It is just said, so simply, and
justly so.
Have some fun with this collection, and discover why
God blows up with such delight.
S. Walton
Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2020
How wonderful, in this day of left brain dominance, of
proofs in the laboratory, of spreadsheets and cost/profit
calculations, that somewhere, someone is still writing
poetry! And what an impressive collection it is! I feel
blessed to have a copy. It helps to remind me that so
much in this world can never be proven in a lab or
accounted for on a spreadsheet. Thank you, Mr.
Fonseca.
June Oliver
Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2020
I loved Freddie’s book. It’s totally charming and makes
you glad to be alive. To me, it was a page turner. I
couldn’t wait to see what was coming up next. When I
am reading, what I notice most is the energy of the
person who is the writer, and Freddie has a lovely
energy, buoyant and life-affirming. The poems do range
from dark to light, but in the balance, the book is a
bright spot in a world that can seem quite out of kilter
these days. If you can’t spend a day at the seashore
watching the waves and weather changes, this book
will take you into that feeling wherever you are. Good
work, Freddie!
Amazon Customer
Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2020
From the silly to the sublime, this collection of delightful
and thoughtful poems covers it all. Part Shel
Silverstein, part Robert Frost, part John Keats, and all
Freddy Fonseca….a man with a big heart and a lust for
life!
Bob Ferguson
This book will become a favorite in your library
Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2020
Freddy Fonseca is a brilliant poet, with both a profound
and whimsical approach to life and poetry. His work is
original, virtually impossible to categorize, and deeply,
deeply satisfying. It has quickly become one of my
favorite books of poetry, taking its place along with
Pablo Neruda on my bed stand.
Rolf Erickson
Images So Strong It’s Like Watching A Movie
Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2020
Freddy will take you places you never imagined
existed. And other places you once visited, but have
totally forgotten about. Places you thought of going, but
were too shy to take the first step. Places that may not
actually exist, but you will wish that they did. These
poems are dances where words are free to share their
hidden meanings. Be prepared to see the world with
new eyes, and to be glad you did.
Hedda Gabler
A must read to feel happiness and joy.
Reviewed in the United States on October 1, 2020
A friend recommended this book to me and I am very
glad that he did. Freddy Fonseca is a visionary whose
words speak to my soul and reenforces my strong Faith
in knowing that there is a spiritual place that surrounds
me with the beauty of Hope and Love.
When I read these poems I am drawn to the energy of
a light that I have never before seen.
Gentle
Stop worrying and love the bomb
Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2020
“Simple abundance” is a concept I’ve always loved,
and this book of poetry speaks to it in a language that’s
common and down to earth, yet elegant and evocative.
Freddy Fonseca has the gift of giving the mundane
beauty and worth. His poems celebrate that trifecta of
time, place and memory. They are dynamic and diverse
in rhythm, tone, color and mood. Like the hidden warp
of a finely woven tapestry, fresh insights and new
awareness lie just below the surface, nuanced perhaps
but integral to the rich design of this true work of art.
The Bomb That Blew Up God will uplift you and expand
your horizons (pun intended).
Rebecca McDowell
Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2020
Freddy’s poems are charming, quirky, and outrageous –
connecting us with the colors, flavors and music of our
own aliveness in unexpected ways.
Patricia
Thank heavens for the Bomb that Blew up God!
Reviewed in the United States on October 11, 2020
This is Freddy Fonseca’s pure soul collective rendition
of life! We can find ourselves transported, as Freddy’s
poetry dances and sings us into different worlds of pure
delight! Thank heavens for The Bomb that Blew up
God!
Kirti Wood, Meditation and Healing Practitioner
Amazon Customer
Poetry to be Set to Music
Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2020
I was privileged to get a preview of several of these
poems before purchasing the complete collection. As a
keyboardist and choral conductor, I was immediately
struck by how many of these magical poems could be
set to music owing to the subject matter, the aural
gracefulness of so many of the settings as I read them
aloud, and the various emotions of wonder, whimsy,
and imagination they evoked. If Fonseca were a
composer, he’d be a double threat!
Linda Egenes
Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2020
This collection of poems evokes everyday moments
that breach the shores of the unfathomable. The
anemone flower a hint of fickle love, a sunset an ode to
the glory of growing old, the swan’s wing the breath of
silence. So much wisdom in these tender poems that
leave sarcasm and bullying behind for the quiet
moments spent listening to the language of trees.
ds in co
Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2020
I am still salivating over these poems, these rich, very
diverse moments from the intimate inner life of the
author. From the seductions of dance to the secrets of
creation, Freddy Fonseca has prepared a banquet of
verse, in which each dish is perfectly spiced to linger in
your awareness and you simply lust to have more.
Some poems are sweet, some are salty. All the flavors
are present, as are all the subtle tones of emotional
experience. And underlying the spices is a
transcendent explosion of creative joy and rye humor
at his divinely human condition.
Amazon Customer
Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2020
I love the contrasting nature of Freddy’s poetry,
whimsical and yet deeply profound.
Angela Mailander
Great poetry
Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2020
What can I say about these stunning poems?
When Freddy Niagara Fonseca asked me to review his
work, I accepted with trepidation. Too much
contemporary poetry is stream of consciousness drivel
with line breaks, and, the New Age having taken its toll,
too much is too nicey-nice. However, while reading, I
got another kind of butterflies: What can I say about
these stunning poems? The poet himself came to my
rescue: On page 109, I found his poem: After Reading
an Obscure Volume of Unusual Poetry. I quote:
Unbearably fierce, yet hauntingly beautiful are the two
extremes of this dark poetry,
relentlessly rushing, an angry river cleaving unsung
forests of passionate pain.
All those raw terms, driving rhythms, ballsy metaphors,
so full of the angst of our Age,
finally flow to oceans of unanswered questions after m
reading the very last line.
Turning to a blank page, I feel like a river scanning the
horizon, searching for meaning.
Is this outlandish work’s purpose meant to drown, or
save us? Is chaos beauty?
And yet, in some shared emotion, the poet and I
embrace this volume’s timely content.
Together we lift this sad Earth high to let a gentle
sunlight dry her age-old, bitter tears.
Unquote. That describes Fonseca’s own poetry so
perfectly, I herewith cop out.
—Angela Mailander, Professor Emerita of Comparative
Literature, Jiangsu University of Science and
Technology, P.R. China
Jim Bagnola
Reawakens our sleeping higher imagination
Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2020
Freddy captures a little bit of the universe with his pen
and paper. He places a magnifying glass on it and
reveals its beauty and magic. He has a playful sense of
wonder that reawakens our sleeping higher imagination.
Enjoy the visions and creativity. “
John Schirmer, Artist
Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2020
To know Freddy Fonseca is to know a man of style and
grace. These same characteristics are found in his
book of poems, “The Bomb That Blew Up God”. Like
music and dance, the poems sing and express a
rhythm that connects them to all the arts. There is
balance and charm, rhythm and harmony, everything
needed to create an entertaining and enlightened read.
James L Shead
Very Beautiful, a Delight to Read
Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2020
Mr. Fonseca’s poems always seem to leave me with a
more expansive view of whatever the subject may be,
and in subject matter and approach, you will find
wonderful variety in this book. For example, “The Bomb
That Blew Up God” is playfully satiric—at once very
funny and quite serious. Another poem, with a softer
approach, is “On a Medieval Painting of the Fall of
Man.” This one brings you into the more subtle reaches
of the heart … and the divine. His poem “Antarctica”
begins with an exploration of geographical extremes,
from the ice and cold of Antarctica to the greenness
and warmth of Trinidad. But as we move with the poet
deeper into his poem, we notice that terrestrial
geography becomes a metaphor for exploring his
geography of the soul. These are just three of my
favorites. On the whole, a beautiful book of poems that
I highly recommend.
Alexandra Stimson
Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2020
Freddy’s poetry is transporting. A simple afternoon
walk, a dance, or picture on the wall will take his
pondering to the milky way and beyond. Freddy
perceives the world around him, and the depth of his
own being, with intensity and clarity. His poetry makes
your heart sing.
Brad Moses
Colors explode, surprises abound and my
Reviewed in the United States on November 4, 2020
I must confess that I don’t know poetry. I’m a songwriter
and I do both music and lyrics. I love the writing of
lyrics and the wonderful connective combinations of
everything magical that goes into it and that which will
hopefully come out from it. As far as I’m concerned,
Freddy is a pure poet. His verse will move along and all
of a sudden take a leap that I’d never think of for a
three minute commercial song – and it fits, it works, and
in a way that is so different from what I do – and I’m
excited that I see that. Freddy has done that for me.
I feel when I’m reading Freddy’s poems, that there are
synapses in my brain that are being enlivened. I must
confess that this is all very self-serving as I can see
how it could expand my lyrical horizons. I have very
rarely experienced this in pure poetry, but Freddy
brings this out in me. Colors explode, surprises abound,
twists and turns and excursions into seemingly
unrelated (at least to me) areas that all seem to end up
in a magnificent whole that in the end leaves me in an
unfamiliar and fascinating space. In a three and a half
minute commercial song you just don’t pass through
that many boundaries.
I’ve heard that poetry takes time, it takes patience and
is to be read as if enjoying a slow setting sunset – and I
have never taken the time to do that. I’m in the
commercial world of super tight rhymes and super tight
meter constraints. I’m now inspired to slow down and
take the time to digest Freddy’s poetry as it connects
with me. I just enjoy his poetry.
Congratulations Freddy. You have one big fan here and
I plan to purchase your book to pursue this path you
have inspired me to take.
—Brad Moses, singer songwriter, recording artist,
arranger, owner/engineer Bradberry Productions
Ordinary Reader “Ron”
His writing will Hit you – a good read!
Reviewed in the United States on November 16, 2020
My impression with Fonseca’s writing, both poetry and
prose, is that it turns my face upward. Then his words
hit me with gentle rain; sometimes the rain goes cold
down my neck but what I want to say is that it hits me.
Freddy is a born poet. He lives outside of the
comfortable boundaries we are accustomed to but his
poetry brings things back from wherever he is, and
those things are sometimes delicate (like, how’s he
getting that back from way over there without damaging
it?), and sometimes they are wrapped in thin white
tissue paper all vulnerable. I always look forward to
reading Fonseca’s work. I would unhesitatingly say,
“Just open the book.”
—Ron Ringsrud, author of Emeralds A Passionate
Guide
T. Britton
Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2020
Good art, art that actually strikes a bell deep inside us
that cries out, “Yes!”, needs to be more than a
collection of clever technique. It needs to have
something to say, something that makes us smile in
recognition that here we have someone who knows us
and what makes our lives worth living. Freddy knows
what joy is, and how to remind us what it is. Enjoy!
—Tim Britton, musician, writer, sound
engineer/producer
awg
Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2020
Beautiful! What variety! Every poem is an expression
of profound inspiration.
George Foster
Colorful, moving, inspiring craft
Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2020
Experiencing a master’s performance in the arts is
always a joy, and this book gives me that. Poetry has a
unique power to guide me into feelings of all kinds and
Freddie knows how to use it beautifully. His phrases,
meanings and meters make me want to rise up to meet
them. Highly recommended.
Amazon Customer
Potent poetry full of movement and sound
Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2020
I have gone back to some of the poems in this book,
again and again. I enjoy the colorful creation of the
lively worlds that Freddy creates. These poems start
from ordinary perception and explode into cosmic
images.
Kindle Customer
Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2020
I have read every poem in this book many times now.
They have the power to recreate the world by drawing
attention to order, simplicity, kindness, and good humor.
The world is a better place with this book in it. It gives
the reader chance after chance to step out of
confinement in a closed and narrow heart.
Charlie Hopkins
Kindle Customer
Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2020
Introspective ride for meditation and revelation!
Contemplating rhythms and dancing silence! This
collection is a remembrance of Journeys taken,
Memories forming, Thoughts exploding And Life
Wondering! A Bedside Book and Dream Tour guide!
Here is the collection of poetry I have waited for all my life — Freddy Niagara Fonseca’s The Bomb That Blew Up God. At last, poems that satisfy both critical mind and longing soul. Bold exquisite, rich language and brilliant awake treatments breathe life into worthy themes — nature, seasons, home, memory, dance, death, music, poetry, contentment. The great triumph of Fonseca’s poetry is sustained momentum blending image with observation to inexorably open the reader to unbounded awareness, where every reader wants to be. Fonseca’s poems entertain!
— Burton Milward, Jr., retired attorney, author, radio show host
Fonseca’s second collection of poems (after This Enduring Gift), organized into seven sections, displays a clear writing style scored with tenderness and splashes of humor. The poems capture pivotal moments in relationships and point to the thread that connects humankind and the divine. Fonseca tackles adult subjects, such as alcoholism, a father-daughter relationship, and separation, with a confessional quality. Some of the collection’s poems have a theme and style that will appeal to a younger audience—“Sunset Blues” has traditional rhyme and rhythms, and “Fireworks” opens with an exciting “pow, ka-BOOOOM, fizzzz”—but both poems go deeper to address taking stock of oneself.
The collection begins to shine in the third section. Humor and creativity meld in the poetic fable of the title poem, which quips, “God retired and Angels sang Him to sleep.” When Fonseca turns his attention to the mundane, his poems pack concentrated power. The two depictions of a quiet, residential street in “Small Town Routine–One View” and “Small Town Routine–A Different View” reveal how the attitudes held by two neighbors colors how each one reacts to a commotion on their street. The clear images will give readers a chuckle. Anyone who has regretted lending a book to a friend will understand the passionate attachment described in “Long-Lost Books.”
Fonseca’s experience curating the Candlelight Reading Series is reflected in the flow of his poems, which take on an added texture when read aloud. This collection carries readers to Greece, Trinidad, and Brazil as well as several periods of history, as in “My Creole Belle,” which depicts a 19th-century cakewalk pageant. Modern poetry fans will delight in these poems, which capture the emotions of intimate and public moments.
Takeaway: This splendid collection attracts modern poetry readers with playful language and evocative imagery.
Great for fans of A.R. Ammons, Gary Snyder, Li-Young Lee.
—BookLife Reviews, July 2020
I loved this vast, complex, yet simple book of wonderful poetry. It is a work of brilliance and honest perception and even more honesty is in the author’s presentation. I recommend this book of sublime intensity to any true reader searching for the power and beauty of language that still exists today…
—Rudy Wilson, National Award Winning Author of several novels
Freddy Fonseca’s ‘The Bomb that Blew Up God and Other Serious Poems’ is an eclectic, alluring invitation to journey into poetic perspectives that will crisscross your inner soul in various ways. Sometimes whimsical, sometimes sobering, always illuminating, Fonseca’s stylistic scope takes readers into realms as fleeting as haiku to epic writings. Thematically dividing this gem into seven facets, this collection holds the promise of triggering new responses each time the reader delves into its lyrical diversity.
—The Culture Buzz
This poetry is so affecting, its rhythms and lyrics so compelling, I become a better person and appreciate living more than before.
— George Foster, book cover designer
If you have the slightest shred of happiness within you, no matter how deeply it may be buried, reading his poetry will unearth, amplify and galvanize it till you are flying on the wings of his euphoria. Your soul and heart will be dancing from the first verses to the last.
— Carol Olicker, bereavement support group facilitator, poet
Drawing from a wide cultural background, Freddy Niagara Fonseca, skips, dances and delights his way through this wonderful collection of poems.
—Tony Ellis, author of There is Wisdom in Walnuts
Here is a highly educated mind, taking from a thorough familiarity with the forms of poetry only what fits most fluidly to his purpose.
—Karla Christensen, poet, muralist, illustrator, Ecuador
This collection of works is distinctive – certainly original and eclectic, deeply sobering and uniquely stylized.
—Rodney Charles, author of the bestselling Every Day A Miracle Happens
What a variety of emotions in these poems! Some whimsical and calling to be read aloud, some elegantly musical with a touch of Shakespeare.
—Jeffrey Moses, Author of Oneness: Great Principles Shared by All Religions
This impressive volume is one that we can pick up at bedtime and open any page for mind travel. We are reminded that we are part of the world of nature.
—Gretchen Langstaff Schaffer, dancer, BA Fine Arts in Dance The Juilliard School
From the seductions of dance to the secrets of creation, Fonseca has prepared a banquet of verse … a transcendent explosion of creative joy and wry humor.
—Debra Smith, Educational Kinesiologist, Watercolorist, Potter, Poet
He lives outside of the comfortable boundaries we are accustomed to but his poetry brings things back from wherever he is. I would say, ‘Just open the book.’
—Ron Ringsrud, Author of Emeralds: A Passionate Guide
This poetry is truly transformational. Moving a person emotionally, helping them to adopt new perceptions, and facilitating changes in perspective is an art in psychotherapy. Fonseca’s poems accomplish exactly that. Hence it seems as if he is not only an accomplished and master poet but a closet psychotherapist as well. :-).
—John Edgette, Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology, and Author of The Handbook of Hypnotic Phenomena in Psychotherapy
Colors explode, surprises abound, twists and turns and excursions into seemingly unrelated (to me) areas that all seem to end up in a magnificent whole that in the end leaves me in an unfamiliar and fascinating space.
—Brad Moses, singer songwriter, recording artist, arranger
At times, the poems closest to prose exhibit the finest fluency; “Kaleidoscope” is a case in point. The language flows easily, one sentence per verse, no syntactical puzzles, no obscurity. Some of his works clamor to be sung, performed, danced out into a throng of celebrants at some unspecified bacchanal.
—Allen Cobb, composer, photographer, sculptor, inventor, essayist, and poet
I could not stop. When each poem ended, I was compelled to read the next. Each poem touched me with a recognition of something strong within myself, joy, fear, surety, joy again.
—Michael Borden, architect and author of Vastu Architecture, New Zealand
Like music and dance, the poems sing and express a rhythm that connects them to all the arts. There is balance and charm, rhythm and harmony, everything needed to create an entertaining and enlightened read.
—John Schirmer…… forty years a print maker, painter, and sculptor
I’m amazed by the power and gripping beauty of his prayer like poetry. How could a mere mortal be so descriptive, the senses so real?
—James Dean Claitor, former film producer and freelance writer
What can I say about these stunning poems? The poet himself came to my rescue: On page 103 I found: After Reading an Obscure Volume of Unusual Poetry.
—Angela Mailander, Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, P.R. China
His poem “Antarctica” begins with an exploration of geographical extremes, from the ice and cold of Antarctica to the greenness and warmth of Trinidad. But as we move with the poet deeper into his poem, we notice that terrestrial geography becomes a metaphor for exploring his geography of the soul.
—James L. Shead, technical writer, retired
These poems seem to glow on the page….a lyrical journey to places, through seasons of life; birth, death and beyond.
—Judy LaMar, painter
Commenting on Olé, Bolero – A Fiesta in Sevilla: Great poem, such gusto and wonderful play, celebrating the sexuality and sensuality of the language that conveys it; —all those great names and Spanish words. Bravo.
—Craig Deininger, PhD, Assistant Professor of Creative Writing, Maharishi International University
Commenting on Books: It captures the spiritual dimension of reading and writing, and the connection to eternity that we make through books. I’ve often had the same feelings – the multitude of books overwhelms me with awareness of my mortality and yet at the same time connects me to something immortal. Nice job.
—Jendi Reiter, editor of WinningWriters.com and author of Bullies in Love and Two Natures