Lines by Leon: Poems, Prose, and Pictures by Leon Stevens
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This inspirational book of poems, prose and pictures takes an observational and contemplative look at “ego, behaviour, human relations, places, and the environment”. Although the poems do address the subjects of loss, refelection, and struggle the writer has taken a more lighthearted and at times humorous take on these subjects. Each poem, prose or short story definitely makes you think and reading them can take you on an emotional rollercoaster, as the blurb says, “the author invites his readers to laugh, think, cry, and meditate on the wide variety of thoughts”. I particularly enjoyed the short stories and could have read more of them. I found the layout of the book a bit muddled, I was unsure at times where one poem ended and another started.
There were phrases and lines in the poems that really jumped out at me and resonated with me. However, some of the longer poems seemed to me to be a jumble of the authors thoughts which I did not understand. Unfortunately although I liked the inclusion of the hand drawn sketches in the book as I thought it made it feel more intimate and personal to the author, again many of them I just did not understand. I have given this book four stars because I did enjoy reading it and it has introduced me to a different genre, but as I’m not a usual poem reader I did feel that I just wasn’t ‘getting it’. However whilst reading ‘Lines by Leon’ I could see how others could get so much more out of the book than maybe I have.

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