An Illustrated Treasury of Verse is another book from Lynn New's Treasury series. It is written with the same insight and inspiration that characterise her other works. She has once again combined her various skills as a poet, calligrapher and illustrator to formulate this selection of her popular poems, designed to comfort and encourage others, whilst making it an enjoyable read.
“What greater inheritance can we pass to another but the gift of Love. So as the tree passes on its fruit and the bird its song…
I pass these words to you.”
The sentiment of these opening lines continues throughout the thirty-five poems of the book, with Lynn encouraging the reader to have a positive outlook on life, retaining dreams and visions and being forever grateful for what we have.
‘Vision’ implores the reader to keep working at those important goals we all have, even if the end is not in sight or even if the result might not seem that valuable to others – it is what is in our souls that counts:
“Why do I climb, though the peak I cannot see,
It’s because in my vision it’s where I must be.
Many of the poems in this collection relate to love in some form, and sometimes a lack of it. ‘Lovers (K)not’ mourns the loss of love. The narrator is clearly confused as to how and why it could have happened and poses a series of rhetorical questions to an unknown audience:
“Where did it go, that dream of you and I?
Written in the stars that spanned the evening sky.
Shining in full glory – a lover’s fantasy;
Why did it have to fade – why did that have to be?”
As with many of Lynn's poems this questioning is part of a thought process that results in some kind of content and even happy outlook, in this case a feeling of ‘no regrets’; that it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all, as another Isle of Wight-based poet once wrote.
There are several poems dedicated to particular relatives. Grand-daughter, Grandson, Husband, Wife, Sister, Brother, Parent, Child and Friend are all featured, each one very different.
Each poem is as insightful as the last, combining light wit with deep emotion, and ultimately displaying a love of life that we have come to expect from Lynn New.
