The ramblings of joys of life, the lust of loins, the beat of loves' heart, and the somber tears of sorrow and loss, create soulful rhythms that can be heard and felt deeply.
Winner of the 2008 IPPY Award for Poetry
Professional Reviews
“An enormously talented man, a complete artist”
“His work is all-encompassing; you can imagine it as a stage play or as lyrics to a song. I would love to see the poems performed as a part of a dance piece.” “Honesty, intimacy, ability to communicate at a gut level! I’ll remember this for the rest of my life. I hope that this is a voice that continues to be heard” - Nina Diamond, Judge, 2008 IPPY Awards
Rhythms truly is a gourmet meal for the poetry connoisseur.”
“Shelton’s Rhythms is a remarkable, impressive work, with “dat” distinct urban feel. Its words, phrases and sentence structure all have movement—they throb, they pulsate, they sway, they dance. Tasty, tantalizing, and eclectic, this collection of poetry, at times, gives one the sense of déjà vu. (Awww…. this writer can hear Dionne Warwick crooning her pop hit, “Déjà vu,” in the recesses of his mind.)” “By no means is Rhythms simply “reading candy.” Au contraire. It is substantive and thought provoking. This writer has to say that although the majority of the volume is readily accessible, some of its selections take just a little bit of time to figure out and “get used to,” which make you go “Hmmmm.” And then, “Yo. Now I got it.”” “But, it’s all good because Rhythms engages the mind. This collection is both cerebral and earthy. Shelton is a unique voice.” Wyatt O'Brian Evans
“A window into the brave vulnerability of a modern-day prophet.”
““Leo Shelton’s RHYTHMS is a window into the brave vulnerability of a modern-day prophet. In this promising debut, Shelton provides a glimpse into, not just a world that he’s so passionately lived, but a world we know, pass by, move through, to begin again in. In Rhythms, we taste life’s sweat, inhale sounds of DC in high-summer, and hear the aroma of somebody’s black mama’s kitchen in Nashville. Shelton calls it like it be, without hiding behind the fictionalized experience that trivializes the legacies of soldiers like Essex, Melvin Dixon, and Assoto. I am proud to be discovering what it means to inscribe our experiences so truthfully and poetically, alongside him.” Tim’m T. West, author, poet, singer, activist
This book represents a thirty-day period of my poetry journal. Each poem addresses
the dominant thoughts occupying my mind during the early morning hours of a given
day.
Robin Ouzman Hislop's poetry is certainly in dialogue with some of the key architects of the 'poetics of indeterminacy' – both the Modernist strands represented by the likes of Beckett and Stein, and the postmodernist strands represented, initially,
