Title: Lift Up Your Heart
Author: RAM
Publisher: XlibrisAU
ISBN: 978-1-9845-0260-5
Genre: Poetry
Pages: 74
Reviewed by: Ella Vincent

Read Book Review

Lift Up Your Heart is an inspiring collection of poems and devotionals by RAM (Robyn A. McGuirk). The text is a living testimonial that will inspire encourage readers. Lift Up Your Heart is a series of poems that RAM wrote about how her faith in God sustained her through her battle with breast cancer. Some poems are filled with gratitude, such as “ Praise the Lord”: I don’t care what tomorrow may bring/For with each day/My heart will sing.’’ In addition to the poems with characters that praise God, Lift Up Your Heart is interspersed with Bible verses to “Masks Off’’ and “God is Everywhere” to further illustrate RAM’s faith.

RAM also has beautiful poems about nature with poems, such as “Rain”: “Rain is so wonderful/ It replenishes the earth/Giving flowers, trees, and plants new birth.’’ “Give God the Glory” is a short story about how a cancer patient and reverend have separate reasons to praise God. Lift Up Your Heart also has a cautionary tale in “The Lonely Man” about a man who lives a solitary life because he worshipped money instead of God. The book also shows the wide range of spirituality, with the poem “ Temptation” about how to deal with a lack of spiritual direction: “ How do you break the chain of temptation/By giving our all to Christ/pray with contemplation.”

Lift Up Your Heart is so emotionally gripping because of the way that RAM’s life experiences guided her poems. RAM’s writing is so heartfelt that readers will immediately engage with the poetry collection. The book is also enhanced by the lovely illustrations by Cath Chegwidden. Her illustrations in the book add to the intensity and visual vividness of RAM’s words throughout the poems.

Lift Up Your Heart would be best for readers who like poems about spirituality and faith. The poems would also be best for enthusiasts of classic poets like C.S. Lewis or Maya Angelou. The text would also be perfect for breast cancer survivors or any survivor of an illness. Lift Up Your Heart could be distributed to cancer survivors or to church groups. The book could be given to any reader who needs inspiration would get insight from this collection of poems.

Lift Up Your Heart is an inspiring and uplifting collection of poems that will have a great impact on readers. The book is a short text, but will have a large influence on readers.