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Reviewed by Inga Buccella for Readers' Favorite
Afloat: A Raft of Water Poems by Sheryl Massaro is a flowing river of poetry. Although each poem leads gracefully into another, each one can also stand alone, as would a pond or puddle. This collection will appeal not only to those who enjoy poetry but also to those of us looking to dive into the deep visions of a word artist and swim around a bit. Some of the phrases paint otherworldly images. Some speak about us humans as visitors in a water universe. Four sections in the book are defined by colorful paintings that coordinate well with the subtitles. We readers float through capsule stories of water in almost endless forms such as waves, rain, wells, aqueducts, pools, the womb, dew, and snow, to mention a few. Echoes of ancient civilizations are buried in a few of the poems.
About halfway through Afloat, I realized that Sheryl Massaro had documented a love affair with water! With beautiful cadence and rhythm, she has put her ode to music like lyrics to a song. Two of my favorites in this collection of poems are The Sunken Continents, and Stars. The Sunken Continents reflects on the age of oceans and earth and a human yearning for the past that is almost cathartic. Stars is the closing poem in a collection that I didn't want to end. But in its words, I found solace in the thought that this element is often life-giving, but sometimes life-taking, is ever-changing, and also a constant in our lives. Sheryl Massaro has created a water journal so engaging that I will be rereading it to make sure not a drop was missed!
