Pen Scratching Poems: A collection of one family’s creative pursuits – Reviewed by: Lily Amanda, Pacific Book Review

Marilyn B. Wassman is as wittily imaginative and honest as ever in her accomplished and beautifully authored poetry collection, Pen Scratching Poems: A Collection of One Family’s Creative Pursuits. These sonnets open and close with deeply stirring expressions and counsel that have been dedicated to her family members and friends in acknowledgment of their love, value, attributes, cognitive abilities, gifting, and talents. An example of this is: “I have written a number of poems/ Crude and indifferent though they be/ But to you, my very own children/ I hope a beacon they’ll be.”

Wassman’s recitation speaks with an alluring cadence and perfect choice of words which ably hook and grip in a flow readers will find concise. This includes stellar rhyming such as: “Though the days ahead look dark/ and the war may soon keep us apart/ our life, our love, with its bright spark/ will never die, never quit/ never part.”  Her grandmother’s unpublished sonnets in appreciation of her marital passion, land, and friends’ personalities and activities is a great incorporation that reveals the poetic aptitude in the family and a great addition to the volume’s subject matter.

In an effort to grab her thoughts and express the beauty she sees in her lineage, Wassman’s voice will inspire readers to connect their hearts and minds to boldly express that which cannot be said orally to loved ones and associates. Her well-developed yarn furthermore beams with impressive honesty and sincerity toward each other, concepts that have evidently aided in unity and growth in the family. She writes: “We’ll work together/ our family three/ and in the future/ keep our home and all/ That we hold dear to be/ as one and all-our right to live forever free.” Wassman masterstroke is her firm stand and heartfelt plea to her lineage to eschew evil and embrace morality and integrity, which is the basis for avoiding subduction by dark passions.

Wassman’s percipience in writing Pen Scratching Poems: A Collection of One Family’s Creative Pursuits has been deployed in a sharply sustained sequence which readers of contemporary poetry will find impressive. This thought-provoking work of literary merit stands out as a far better composition than many publications considered ‘the classics’ and will ably warm its readers’ hearts and challenge their benevolence.