A Piece of Cobalt Sky: A Book of Modern Poems

by Mike Burns

A Piece of Cobalt Sky offers visions of beauty that are concealed by mundane everyday life. This volume is written in free-verse, with subtle sound blending that is a fusion of organic rhythms with a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1448669901
• ISBN13: 9781448669905
• Release Date: August 2009
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 132 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

The Beauty of Chaos and Turmoil

Offering a variety of insights, experiences, and inspirations, Captain Mike Burns' A Piece of Cobalt Sky A Book of Modern Poems is filled with over ninety different compositions in free verse deliberately designed for readers to experience the power of appreciation in everyday life. Burns steps out from a world inhabited by chaos, confusion, war, and turmoil to boldly step into a place of tranquility filled with hope and passion for survival. The army captain's first book of poetry is divided into four sections and addresses powerful themes of the battles we face fighting the human condition: "Gods and Angels," "Time and Suffering," "Beauty and Dreams," and "Many Faces." Soldier-writers have long produced memoirs of war in modern American literature, but Cobalt Sky presents a different kind of introspective that magnetically tugs at the heartstrings of ordinary citizens from all walks of life. Mike Burns takes life's sweetest and most painful moments, savors each one of them, and in melodic yet unpredictable language, soothes and comforts every type of heartbreak one could possibly imagine. And he does so without pomp and circumstance. The words are humble, genuine, intelligent, and passionate. In the words of his signature poem, "Scouting Paradise," he writes: To wrestle an angel For a piece of cobalt sky Fired by the sun. To see heaven in waking dreams Walking easily, burdened light.... While we journey on our way Seeking not the gleaming stairs In a high and celestial tower But reaching paradise Over the tender stem Of a gently waking flower. A Piece of Cobalt Sky A Book of Modern Poems allows us the freedom to bask in the beauty of chaos and inner turmoil without the guilt of knowing that not everything is black and white. Readers may not always relate nor understand all of its images and metaphors, but the poet invites everyone to peel away our own shades of gray to find a faint hint of brightness to uncover the darkness within ourselves.

Ecclectic, enjoyable sometimes deep- overall- a book worth rereading

I have read and re-read this collection of poems. I can't say that I can interpret or dissect all of them- and that is part of the beauty and intrigue of this book. Daydream captures so vividly the mystery of the space between sleeping and awakening- it is rather haunting in its accuracy and portrayal of that "space". There is something for everyone in this varied collection of poems or rather written documentations of thoughts, experiences and dreams. I am looking forward to the author's next published works.

A spectrum of color and flavor

I am currently savoring this book, it sits in my reading room and I will read a piece or two from it on occassions when I pass. You can tell that this is a collection that has been gathered over time because you can feel a change in tone as you read a piece in one part as opposed to another in the book. I am no poetry critic or expert but I enjoy A Piece of Cobalt Sky and what Mike Burns has revealed to us in this work, and I look forward to reading more from him in the future.