Celestial Promise

Celestial Promise is the winner of the International Proverse Prize 2016 Supplementary Prize. In this collection of poetry, written over half a lifetime, Hayley Ann Solomon focuses primarily on the pursuit of excellence, immortality achieved through finite life, love in all its forms, and social justice. As it waxes and wanes, the collection cycles through sequences of lyrical ballads, sonnets, elegies, haiku, snippets of nonsensical verse; all blended with a substantial dose of existential philosophy and social comment. The collection covers a full spectrum, from the darkest psycho-social moments, to zeniths of absolute joy. The liberal use of consonance, assonance, alliteration, echoes and half-echoes, rhyme and cross-rhyme make for a style rich in sound-play. This, together with strong metrical awareness - very often iambic or trochaic pentameter and tetrameter - evokes a flow that is quite typically euphonic. There is therefore a sense of lyricism despite a broad diversity of topics and moods. The anthology evolves to become a promise of regeneration, in synchrony with the phases of the moon, from which it takes its celestial title. "In these poems Ms Solomon has recreated the world through her eyes.... [She] takes the reader on a safari through several manifestations of the human condition. ... [The] way ... is well lit ... by metaphorical moonlight along a lunar calendar which provides meticulous order to this meaningful journey."- Randal A. Burd, Jr., M. Ed."The poet is both romantic and scholar: inviting us to reflect on themes of transience and the cyclical nature of life: urging us to acknowledge the dark while reaching for the light."-Viki Holmes, author of miss moon's class (Chameleon Press, 2008), Girls' Adventure Stories of Long Ago (Chameleon Press, 2017) and co-editor of Not A Muse (Haven, 2009)."A spirited collection of poems."-Vaughan Rapatahana, Winner of the inaugural Proverse Poetry Prize.