Universes Beyond the Visible Elements of Dream is a compendium of elegant poetry by Oliveira Forte & Sherman and excellent photography by Sherman.

Oliveira Forte says “reading is a need, like breathing, writing is a lust like loving”. In this collection their poetry and photography breathe and grow on you like life. Sherman mentions “I don’t just look through the lens with my eye. First, I look with my heart.” You can read their verses in his photography; see those photographs dance in their poetry. A photographer ends up disentangling self from a picture; Joseph is a magician, like his verses you will find him inside his photographs.

Their collection is a wonderful blending of Iberian transcendental and imagist poetry. Oliveira Forte uses both the broader and finer strokes in her work, like a master painter. Her work ranges from existential themes to nature, to love. Sherman is an excellent imagist poet. His work ranges from nature to romance.

If you are a lover of both Iberian transcendentalism and Imagist poetry this book is a seven course meal in a five star restaurant. If you are a lover of mysticism this book is a treasure.

Joseph’s poem A Word is an example of his mastery over metaphors, similes and extended images. The poem begins on an existential slope: The page aches for a word, /something precious,/ a word that is timeless,/a word that can sail the seven seas. The quest for word transmutes into so many different images, which symbolize desire, hope, and at times love, at times journey. The poem ends in a philosophical note “Time has come for this word to be reborn!” as if urging for a redemption.

Alexandra’s poem The Hour is a demonstration of her elegant play with images.
It is a short, four-line poem: It was the hour of no other hour/by the fire of other fires/casting searing shadows within many more shadows/of other flames. The images grow inside your mind like the madness of sand dunes in a desert. Shadows, flames and quiescence of time, its stagnancy and subliminal dynamism make it open to so many interpretations.

Rating: 5 Stars

Debashish Haar,
Editor-in-Chief,
The Alchemy Post
The Alchemy Post