Reviews
Hearing from Readers
These reflections come from individuals who have walked alongside the poems. Their words speak to the personal resonance of this work.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ – • I lost my wife two years ago, and I've never found words for that hollow space. Casselman’s poems, especially 'Your Spirit in a Thousand Living Things,' didn't try to fix it. They just sat beside me in it. Finally, I felt understood. This book is a companion for the kind of loss that changes everything.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ – The poem 'Birthday Wish' hit me like a gut punch. That tangled love and distance between fathers and sons—he captured it perfectly. It made me pick up the phone and call my dad, and then my own son. It’s that kind of book. It gets under your skin and changes your actions.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ – As someone who spent years at sea, the authenticity here is stunning. 'Ahoy! Columbus' isn't just a metaphor; it's the real feeling of the horizon line. Casselman doesn't romanticize the voyage; he shows its loneliness and its lessons. It brought back a flood of my own memories, sharp and clear.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ – I'm tired of books that sugarcoat getting older. This one doesn't. There's no 'silver lining' spin, just a powerful, sometimes uncomfortable, honesty about looking back. The poem 'Returnal' about the season of endings stayed with me for days. It’s a brave, necessary look in the mirror.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ – 'll be honest, I often find poetry difficult to connect with. This was different. The language is clean and powerful, not cryptic. Poems like 'The Waiter' and 'Midwife' about the struggle to create something felt immediate and real. It’s literary, but it’s for people who live real lives, not just academics.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ – In a world that tells men to be silent, this book is a revelation. Casselman writes about fatherhood, failure, love, and fear without any armor. Reading 'The Hunter' and 'The Art of Substitution' felt like a permission slip to be more honest about my own inner conflicts. It's a quietly revolutionary read.