While reading Questions
in the Balance by Christopher W. Boyden, it became abundantly clear why he
has won so many awards and accolades for his published poetry. His work exemplifies classic poetry; bringing
together the key elements of an articulate choice of words, wonderful imagery, and
existentialism in philosophy and originality within structure; all masterfully
put to mostly a sharp iambic pentameter foot. Moreover, Christopher W. Boyden transcends
the age barrier; meaning his poems are as interesting to an adult as much as to
a child. He shows respect for readers of
all ages, as all can comprehend the revealed mature concepts while being entertained
by the rhythm of the structural elements.
Questions in the
Balance represents 73 original poems, indexed by subject, in Christopher W.
Boyden’s first published collection. He
categorized his work by topics such as: Nature, love and romance, answers to the questions of thought, heaven,
and our future as human beings. Although
not laden with theological overtones, his beliefs are Christian and have references
to God and the belief of creation and eternal life. Christopher W. Boyden candidly reveals his
inner personal thoughts, often dedicating a poem to a deceased loved one such
as his grandmother or his brother that died too early; in fact there is one
poem written about his deceased dog going to “Dog heaven.”
What I felt from his poetry was his gentlemanly respect for
all of his readers, and his intrinsic enjoyment of writing poetry. Unlike some poets whose ego personifies
arrogance by breaking all established rules of poetry, Christopher W. Boyden
“plays within the rules” of established poetic prose, and thusly commands the
respect for his ingenious wordsmithing of English. He enables his words to dance off the pages
into the reader’s mind. As I have
learned some of his poems have been scored to music, one can see the beautiful
imagery and chivalry he portrays as being within a class of writing analogous
to masters who come to my mind such as Robert Frost, James Joyce or even Ogden
Nash.
Questions
in the Balance is
an ideal gift book to give to anyone for any occasion, or to keep for your own
home library so your friends and family can enjoy over and over. It is a book that can be picked up, read, and
then placed down until a future time; as each poem is merely a page or two in
length. After reading this book from
cover to cover, I did something I don’t often do ~ I read it all again. After all, with so many of my own memories
being triggered by Christopher W. Boyden’s lovely writing, how could I resist
an encore performance of such cerebral stimulation?
