Your Words Your Love is a symphony of captivating poetry intertwined with exquisite photographs of nature.
The sign on the door
In big bold gold letters
Reads
Vacancy
There’s room
Inside
Ample
Always
No sincere hearts
Will be turned away
For lack of any kind
An excerpt from the poem There’s room, part of this artistic new collection.
Insightful poetry that speaks directly to your heart and soul about God and His love.
Intriguing story poems where faith, hope, salvation, and trust in Him are center stage.
Among the pages of riveting verses are endearing photographs of nature in all its splendor throughout the seasons.
The fourth installment in Bélanger’s Your Words poetry series offers a rousing, heartfelt interplay of nature photography and poems that explore the poet’s Christian faith, particularly the threshold between heaven and earth, the spiritual plight of selfishness, and the practice of faith and theological contemplation. In “There’s Room,” when Bélanger writes, “the sign on the door // In big bold gold letters // Reads Vacancy // There’s room // Inside // Ample // Always,” the door is an opening to heaven, but it’s also an invitation to enter a life of spiritual abundance based on a practice of faith. For Bélanger, poetry is part of that practice; through her poems, she allows readers access to her world of faith: “I’m showing you part of mine // I write,” and in turn, she is able to reach God through her art. “Come close,” she writes in “The Traveling Bag”: “Do you see? Look how Louise is beautifully written on God’s palm.” But in Bélanger’s conceptualization of faith, it is not just her name written on God’s palm—it is everyone’s. As she writes in “I Matter to God,” “I matter to God // I matter to Jesus // Realize today // The same can be said // About you!”
Between each poem, Bélanger also includes stunning original photographs depicting floral portraits, idyllic landscapes, and other picturesque flora from all seasons, plus surprises like rain streaking on a window. There is a quiet, simple brilliance in each of them, and they show how Bélanger’s faith shapes the way she sees the world and the beauty she finds in it; each flower, and each petal in each flower, is a perfect creation of Bélanger’s God, and all of them deserve attention and appreciation. Readers seeking a multifaceted, thought-provoking, and visually engaging poetry experience based in faith will find abundance in Bélanger’s collection, which reminds the faithful that “We can choose // To be instrumental // To magnificent goodness.”
Takeaway: Gorgeous collection of nature photography and inspiring Christian poetry.
Comparable Titles: David Lyle Jeffrey’s “A Testament of Witness,” and Dana Gioia’s “Pity the Beautiful"
Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: C+
