Notes on the Train by Loreen de Kort is a thought provoking collection of impassioned poetry and prose. It includes dozens of poems about a range of themes such as hiding your true feelings for fear of being hurt, allowing others to affect or control how you feel, not seeing the good things about yourself that others can see, feeling unloved, looking outside of yourself for happiness rather than finding it within, not being seen for your true self, not fitting in, feeling lost, not being able to accept help from others, striving for a high goal that has not yet been reached, and questioning what is the meaning of life.

The poems in this book are heartfelt and stirring, and I enjoyed all of them in different ways. Although many of them have a darker theme, there were also many poems that were inspiring and uplifting, which were the ones that I especially liked.

My favorite poem was “Hitting and Missing”, which is about what a mother is missing by having children not outweighing what she didn’t miss–the precious moments with her children. Even as a reader who does not have children of my own, I could relate to this poem because it made me think of my own mother. I also liked the poem about puzzle pieces with each doll holding a different piece which represented a specific emotion or quality that was needed to make a complete whole, and not allowing the sorrow piece to take over. This poem was different than any poem I have read in other books, and I liked the uniqueness of it.

The poems varied in style with differing structures and ranged in length from a short poem with only four lines to poems that were a few pages. I liked this variety in the poems because it ensured that the book did not feel repetitive even though similar themes were used. This book is comprised almost entirely of poems, but I enjoyed the inclusion of the short story as well.

While I did not fully understand some of the poems, I still felt that the poems were stimulating and meditative. I felt that some poetic styles didn’t resonate with me, but I appreciated how the poems conveyed a variety of emotions, some of them dark but all of them were expressive.

Notes on the Train is a stirring poetic exploration of the authors emotions and the struggles anyone faces with depression and the myriad of struggles that life presents. A bold, candid and memorable collection of poetry.

Pages: 57 | ASIN: B09436WNLJ