Within and Without

“The focus is on harmony, unity, beauty. These poems are lyrical dewdrops, distillations of Whitmanesque enthusiasms minus the excess.” – Pacific Book Review “Passionate, philosophical, and quaintly picturesque, the author’s collection reads like a romantic devotional.” – US Review of Books In Within and Without—as in his previous collections of poems, Progression and JAD—Hansen explores the themes of nature, philosophy, and romance but more deeply and more passionately. In the first part of the book, he blends philosophical insights with his love of nature and raises thought-provoking questions connecting the two. In the second part, he expresses his love for his soul mate, Kristen, in poems that are passionate and picturesque. In both parts, he uses his natural surroundings to gain insight into his inner landscape and vice versa.

"Finally, my mind drifts back to the sun,
but it’s already down."

In this deeply personal poetry collection, readers discover the small, often overlooked, moments that compose a lifetime’s mosaic. The book opens brightly with the poem “Dawn,” which celebrates those first few seconds in a person’s day. Pieces like “Not Me” offer a sensory experience where sight and sound combine, and the speaker contemplates philosophical questions such as “What is it like to be rain / splattering pavement in the night?” Other poems like “Mozart” offer a deep yet humorous contemplation as the speaker reflects that listening to Mozart is “like a great meal that / I don’t know how to cook.” Other works in the collection offer quietly romantic snippets that acknowledge the boundaries of emotional capability and the intense motivation to continually do better for one’s partner that develops over time.

Passionate, philosophical, and quaintly picturesque, the author’s collection reads like a romantic devotional. Adding to the poems’ impacts are their forms and structures, and the simplicity places emphasis on the themes and subjects the author explores. For those looking for emotionally accessible poetry, this compilation offers a variety of poems that will appeal to readers of all aesthetics. For others who are just beginning to explore poetry, this collection provides a unique pathway into a genre with an ever-expanding audience. Because of its intimate themes and subject matter, this book will make the perfect gift for a person looking to express their emotions to that special someone. In essence, it is a collection sure to delight poetry readers of all backgrounds.

—The US Review of Books

When was the last time you saw your world from a dozen dazzling new perspectives? When was the last time you saw yourself in the center of a beautiful dance of creation? One at a time, and read as a whole, James Richard Hansen's poems take you there.

Hansen brings his wide-eyed uncanny appreciation of the elements, the Pacific, the rain, and acts of the imagination into our lives with these lapidary images and strophes that go down easy but linger in the mind. The poems are deceptively minimal, a few touches of the artist's brush to the canvas of the soul. But don't be fooled. The density and impact of haiku and Zen koans are right there too.

A color, a scent, a metaphor, in Hansen's capable hands, morphs into the unexpected. Synesthesia - a mélange of sight and sound and feeling - is the order of the day.

Consider 'Inward Journey':

As night looks through glass doors,
our torchiere lamp casts an eerie glow,
while the pothos plant forms an ominous shadow.
Lights, plants, and furniture create bizarre chiaroscuro on the walls and floor.
I look inward like a spelunker on my perennial journey into the abyss.
I feel a little sorry for myself.

...a little sorry for myself right here seems to say it all, conjuring up the unexpected: the nostalgia and regret that might accompany serious (and possibly dangerous) acts of musing and introspection.

'Attending the Symphony', much in the same vein, transports effortlessly from the visual to the aural:

I wake from dreams of music to a symphony of color visible through the glass door.
Sunlight dances on the flowers and leaves and sets our garden on fire. Iridescent dewdrops sparkle, creating hundreds of tiny rainbows.
The orchestra performs daily.

Hansen's celebration of nature likewise strikes a magic chord. In several poems he remarks upon the apocryphal 'green ray' of certain mystic sunsets. His poems to his soul mate, (second part of the collection), Love Poems to Kristen, written at each anniversary year, sendoff equally supernal rays.

The focus is on harmony, unity, beauty. These poems are lyrical dewdrops, distillations of Whitmanesque enthusiasms minus the excess. They are also recipes for living. Poetry aficionados, poetasters, and poetry newbies as well, will all appreciate this chapbook.

—Pacific Book Review