Readers View The Aim to Endeavor Book Review
The Aim to Endeavor
Susana Henschel
Blurb Publishing (2024)
ISBN: 979-8211673281
Reviewed by Elizabeth Upshur for Reader Views (06/2024)
Susana Henschel’s collection of poems, “The Aim to Endeavor: A Fusion of Reflective Poetry and Scenic Photography,” is thoughtful, comforting, and inspiring. I was unfamiliar with her poems but found several of them speaking directly to me and offering beautiful turns of phrase as well as moments of deep clarity and observational wisdom in line with her wonderful title.
This book is divided into four sections of poems with accompanying photographs of beautiful destinations. These four sections depict the speaker discussing their current situation, acknowledging the advantages and conflicts of their life, and moving from chaos towards a greater sense of peace and promise.
I could feel and appreciate the journey and narrative that these poems illustrate throughout the collection. There are some definite “haiku moments” where the language is working beautifully, evoking this sense of hope and positivity, as well as demonstrating what modern poetry can do in terms of creating a strong experience and call to action.
I could see this book of poems being used as a response journal, with readers working through the poems and writing journal responses to what sparks their interest, almost like a daily prompt for working out one’s emotions and working towards a greater understanding of self and one’s goals.
As a book of photography, there are some absolute stunners on display here! My favorites were Moonlight (Joffre Lakes, BC, Canada); Exploration of the Soul (Joffre Lakes, BC, Canada); Having It All (Boston Bar, BC, Canada); and the untitled photograph on page 100 (Dubrovnik, Croatia). Each of these photos is enthralling, and Susana should be proud of how well she has portrayed these various countries as sites of bliss. They beckon the more adventurous readers to travel to these spots and take their own photographs, interacting with the landscapes of water, greenery, and architecture.
The book starts out strong with its first chapter titled The Obstacles Circling My Thoughts, with some standout poems in this collection. Box of Thoughts, which was simply gorgeous to me, offers a stillness and contemplative atmosphere emanating from my favorite line “soul-centered heart.”
In The Musical YoYo the poet asks, “How to bend a little? Should I?” as they navigate life.
This line helps to establish the life that the speaker is dissatisfied with and ways that they might change it into something that truly brings them joy and pleasure. The title is lilting and funny, while the context and narrative are grounded in real-world applications and thoughts, making this piece both raw and necessarily honest about making choices and navigating life–-and compromise!–-as an adult.
Substance in the Mundane “time to clean up, then time to dream” continued with that idea of compromise. After all, dreaming and wishing are necessary, but we still must do the dishes and the laundry if we are to have clean pots and pans, clean shirts, and a clean home in which to accomplish our desired endeavors.
The poem Still Bouncing offers the lines “To be vigilant to the preciousness of life, laughter, and love. / To remember that life is richest when you are at the / core of our being” will likely resonate with a more spiritual crowd, as well as ecopoetic lovers.
The poem Our Turn is a nice follow-up, very plaintive ending “I will try to remain faithful, hopeful -/ please” read like a benediction, a prayer, an earnest desire of what the speaker is capable of and what they will try to carve out of each forthcoming day.
The other sections in Henschel’s book were sectioned and named as follows: An Awareness of Circumstance, An Internal Awakening, and The Aim to Endeavor. Each section offers interesting and thoughtful poems alongside the photographs, transporting the reader outside of their own mind and space into the healing environment of nature. There are good word choices, and the style is consistent throughout, delivering a relatable tone and diction.
This collection is solid and enjoyable, and I hope that future collections offer even more variety in the styles and lengths of poems that we are given.
Overall, the journey that the reader goes through with these individual poems and the different sections provides all the moments of reflection and momentum that the title promises.
