Skies and Chasms

"But I know you are waiting on Earth, so I return home and float in the heaven of your love."

In this poetry collection, readers discover verses where nature and passion coincide. Poems such as “Freedom” remind them what a difficult journey the path to freedom is. Meanwhile, other poems such as “Corinne” remember a loved one, while “The Silence” encourages one to take the time to listen to the messages sent by the environments surrounding a person. In these poems, readers also discover a deep devotion to nature. For example, the poem “The Beach” encourages readers to “sink into experience” as they encounter the natural world. Similarly, “On a Starry Night” transports one into “an otherworldly glow” where “gossamer clouds stretch,” leaving both the reader and the poem’s speaker wanting more. Other poems like “Writing” take a different path and remind us how a simple act can become life-changing.

In crisp, clear, relatable language, the speaker in each selection offers the elements of everyday existence and observance. The pieces embrace short lines and brief lengths, which make the language even more real and accessible. Hansen's offerings are sensitive and full of light, and the speaker in each is carefully attuned to the world around them. The poems also carry a spiritual element, one that leaves readers with quiet contemplations about this world and the next. The book’s section, “Love Poems for Kristen,” is a tender one, and it offers those looking for the perfect romantic sentiment the opportunity to find one. Readers who like their poetry steeped with natural imagery find that in this collection. This book is accessible to poetry lovers of all ages and backgrounds.

- The US Review of Books

Skies and Chasms is a robust poetry collection exploring the spectrum of human experience. Poet James Richard Hansen delivers nature poetry which manages to both isolate and include humanity's mortal fragility into the immortal vastness of nature. Skies and Chasms is both literal, exploring the extremes of nature, oceans and galaxies, and metaphorical, the intense highs and lows of human emotion. Readers of Skies and Chasms will experience the blend of nature into civilization where the mundane of each somehow accentuates the other into something even more wonderful. Yet other poems through this collection will focus on the relentless consistency of nature as an antidote to the chaos and turbulence of modernization.

Hansen likes very big imagery: oceans, mountains, galaxies serve to emphasize the smallness of man and our fleeting lifespans. There is certainly an element of the grain of sand in the ocean to Hansen's poetry. Despite the awe and splendor, the embrace of things bigger than ourselves, there's a chill of fear, as well. Then, like all life itself, there is the fight to survive. Hansen writes, “Strong undercurrents pulled me under, and I was unable to prevent the plunge... I can see the surface now. I can see sunlight and the promise of life.” Readers experience man's struggle as both a part of and apart from the ceaseless tide of nature.

As a poet, Hansen has the ability to punch his readers with very short, striking lines. He is a very strong nature poet; writing with an abundance of self-reflection. For instance, the glittering surface of the ocean is beautiful as he adds as a reminder of the “riches of the universe.” One can love looking at the stars when he ties it to “humanity. Even with all its foibles and failures.” The poetry explores the existence of natural phenomena and tends to place over top a human lens.

Skies and Chasms is a collection of really lovely and short poems. When a poet writes short pieces, as Hansen does, there is magnificent pressure to deliver your message. Hansen succeeds every time. Poetry should make the reader experience emotion. Even nature poetry where imagery reigns most supreme should invoke a powerful response. Skies and Chasms does this softly. It's a collection that is easy to enjoy. If Thoreau's Walden proved too exhaustive, try Hansen's Skies and Chasms instead.

- Pacific Book Review