Woman: Splendor and Sorrow: Love Poems and Poetic Prose

Woman: Splendor and Sorrow: Love Poems and Poetic Prose by Gabriela Marie Milton is a touching poetry collection centering on love, philosophy, and heartbreak. Packed with rich imagery and figurative language, Milton’s poems color the pages with beauty, inspiration, and sincerity.

The first section of Milton’s collection focuses on love poems. Beginning with an introduction to her lover, she describes the first days they spent together. In the poem, “Professions”, Milton admits her motto to get “drunk on love, charity, and passion.” She goes on to describe with elaborate visuals how the first three days with her lover involve these three professions. As the poems move forward, the reader hears of their love, fights, passions, and adventures. A poem I particularly enjoyed was titled, “Spring.” In this poem, Milton tells of a day spent with the man she loved. Describing the honey sweetened lemonade and the church bells on the terrace, I smiled as she read aloud to this man who later confessed his love for her but was unsure of how it happened. I felt the serenity of the scene as if I was there with them with the “skies sighing.” Another poem I particularly was touched by was titled, “On Sacrifice and Meaning.” Milton opens up with a strong statement stating, “Because I love you, I learned the meaning of sacrifice.” Any reader can relate to this statement; at some point, we have all prioritized another’s happiness and wants over our own desires.

Milton’s second section of her collection centers on poetic prose. Although I enjoyed the first section, I preferred this section overall. Moving into topics that explore more than just love, Milton touches on feminism, loss, and her childhood. She opens up with “My name is Gabriela”, in which she writes of her father, who used to call her Marie as a child. She continues as she briefly explains her family history and transitions into how her writing comes to her in libraries. A prose piece I particularly enjoyed from this section was titled, “The Six O’clock Café.” Opening with images of the luminous morning light, the smell of freshly roasted coffee, raspberry cobbler, and eyes as bright as mountain springs, my attention was captured. This piece continues as it tells of her and her lover watching the city, the sea, and planning for their future. My heart broke with Milton as they later went back to the Six O’clock Café, and oh, how things had changed for them. Overall, I found Milton’s collection enjoyable. Any poetry lover would find a piece to pique their interest.