Reflections of a Mississippi Magnolia-A Life
in Poems
Amazon.com book review
"I was privileged to purchase this "little book of poems" first at a
book-signing, and to hear many of them read in the authors own musical
voice. I must say that as I read the remainder of her poems, it was her
voice that I heard intoning the words, her soft Mississippi accent
hitting the syllables just right, playing like a haunting melody from
yesteryear in my head.
I am a native Mississippian. I know
exactly of what the author writes. I have lived it. Mississippi flows
through my blood in ways that are nearly inexplicable, and yet,
Neely-Dorsey has largely explained it through her poetry. Reading her
poetry is like coming home to myself. No gloom and doom here. No
head-scratching, dictionary-hunting,"what-the-heck do they mean by
that?" poetry. Just straight from the heart and memory, in an easy
rhyming fashion that anyone from youngsters to older folks can read,
understand, and delight in. There's beauty, as in "Mississippi Morning", humor and wit, as in "Shades of Lovely", and state pride, "Mississippi
Through and Through". My personal favorite, the achingly deceptive,
"Right To Vote", written in her typical lighthearted manner, chronicles
the bitter struggles blacks went through for that right. It moves me
each time I read it, and I read it again and again.
Poetry is a lyrical means of expressing oneself. I would say Patrica Neely-Dorsey has made an excellent start."