When Love Rises is a contemporary poetry collection by Michelle G Stradford. Michelle writes poems that primarily revolve around the emotion of love and the various forms it can take. In this case, it can be love in regards to any relationship such as love for friends or parents, but a lot of the poems in the book are focused on the love that is felt with a partner, a lover, or a soulmate. The poems are divided into three broad sections: Love Rising, In the Dark, The Light. They deal with the various ups and downs related to this intense emotion. This can be the excitement of a new attraction or a new relationship, the joy of feeling that one has found their other half or soulmate, the feeling that the world is a better place when one has love in their life, or the devastation and despair of a breakup. The poems are fairly short with most of them being a page or two long. There is a short author bio at the end.

I liked reading When Love Rises by Michelle G Stradford. It is a modern poetry book in the sense that the context and situations are clearly contemporary and adults and young people alike should be able to relate to them easily. I liked the poems that convey a sense of empowerment in the lines. These are inspiring and encourage people not to give up on looking for love because it is what makes life meaningful in any sense. Some of my personal favorites were Salty Years, Royalty, When We Fly, Love Thrives, Deep Patience, among others. Michelle writes with a nice rhythm and flow and I am sure poetry fans would appreciate this collection.

In its three sections, When Love Rises by Michelle G Stradford captures the varying emotions of love. At first, the character is absorbed by the powerful and fleeting moments of falling in love. In this part of the collection, the emotions are engulfing as the two lovers immerse themselves in moments of pure bliss. The relationship begins to break in the second part as the truth behind motives begins to emerge, as in the poem Signs: “My lips believe your kisses, but my heart reads lie language.” The last section highlights the character’s growth as they deal with the pain and the need to move forward as reflected in the poem, No More Excuses, which states, “I am done trying on these different faces, no more practicing how to make excuses for why you never show up.”

In Michelle G Stradford’s emotive collection, When Love Rises, the character’s experiences make the poems authentic. The overwhelming feelings, in the beginning, are later replaced by hurtful experiences. The collection captures a realistic journey of two lovers. It contains myriad emotions from feelings of delight to those of pain. It is also appropriately categorized and each section contains poems that explore the relationship at different stages. Sometimes the poems are short as in the poem Obsession. In this case, the words are few but compelling. In other poems such as Wasted, longer lines give a more detailed picture of the character’s perspective. Titles are placed at the end of each poem. They summarize the main message of each poem and give weight to the words as the poem closes. When Love Rises is a heartfelt collection that is a treat for romance poetry fans.