The collection is organized in seven groups, each corresponding to one of the seven emotions, expressed by the poems in that group: hope, joy, humour, love, sadness, anger and despair. These feelings are also represented by the rainbow: from the happy warm colours to the sad cool ones. In addition, the poems also comment on the most important lessons the author learned in a long and adventurous life.
Excerpt
Evolution
While thumbing his phone
he walks into a lamp post.
Evolution sighs.
Professional Reviews
All the Colors of the Rainbow
Prism of my Mind by Francis Mont is very much true to the title. This collection consists of threads of color and meaning tied together from a singular perspective. There are very intimate personal poems of love and caring, vast visions of humanity, science and the universe and what it may or may not mean and even a couple of cat poems. These are poems of deep introspection about life, humanity and sometimes the absurdity of it all.
One poem I particulary identified with was "Sleepwalker" as I had just finished re-reading Loren Eiseley's One Night's Dying both dealing with sleeplessness (Eiseley was a life-long insomniac). Similar themes are explored in both Eiseley's essay and Mont's poem.
The one that made me laugh out loud though was titled "Evolution"
Evolution
While thumbing his phone
he walks into a lamp post.
Evolution sighs.
and I ask myself, 'Evolution, or not?' What path are we on? And that in some ways might sum up this collection as a whole -- a poet looks at life and breaks it into all the colors of the rainbow for all to see.
View Through a Prism
A keen observer of human behavior, Francis Mont presents insightful comments on what we do for good or ill and what we could do for good or ill.
Thus he shows a deep concern for today's social problems. Though Mont has a solid science background, his philosophical and often humorous writings show he has the heart and soul of a poet.
The Prism of My Mind is not a book to be read through and then put on a shelf. Each poem inspires me to pause, to contemplate not just the surface but the layers of meaning.
The deceptively simple haiku
First Snow...
Snowflakes dance in air,
turning all that's dark to light...
...whitewashing our sins.
...brings to mind early haikus, a glimpse at a natural phenomenon to hint at the complexities of human nature.
Dear readers, this is my third book of poems, and inside are a special collection of what have turned out to be not only MY personal favorites, but also the favorites of many of YOU. Some of these have never been available in print before...
