These poems are beautifully crafted and richly evocative. They are distillations of moments of heightened awareness, often inspired by some scene in nature. The scenes are evoked in language that is rich in memorable phrases and vivid images, yet without seeming contrived or artificial. I'm certain that anyone who picks up Gateways will find it an enjoyable and rewarding experience.

David Mascitelli
Professor Emeritus of English
Oakland University, Rochester MI

Sylvia Levinson’s Gateways is a delightful collection of 15 meditative poems designed—as the poet herself puts it in the Introduction—to bring readers “to the realization of being alive in the present moment.” Although unapologetically inspirational, these poems have none of the cloying sentimentality and overblown statement that often characterize the efforts of poets less skilled than Levinson. There is a sureness of craft here, a practiced ease, that is uncommon even in a poet who has been tilling the soil much longer than she has. Each poem is a flawless gem that surprises and delights by taking the ordinary—a candle, a fern, a calla lily perhaps—and turning it on the poet’s lathe into something quite extraordinary. As a writer myself (though not of poetry), I am seduced by well-crafted language, and I find myself utterly charmed by Levinson’s sensuous imagery (drawn mainly from nature), delicious turns of phrase and finely tuned rhythms. There is sentiment here to be sure, never cloying or self-absorbed but always subordinate to the intellectual and spiritual insight that each poem affords.

I am retired from teaching now, but if I were still in the classroom, I would use Gateways in a trice. I think it would be an excellent tool for introducing students to the art and joy of poetry. The book’s format is ideal for that application, each poem being followed by a question designed to evoke and provoke a response. The poems are very accessible even to an inexperienced reader, with none of the deliberately sought obscurity that limits so much modern poetry to a narrow field of “elite” readers. By no means does that imply that these poems are simplistic, for Levinson achieves that rare balancing act of conveying powerful insight in luminously clear language. Indeed, some of the poems—I’m thinking particularly of “Walking Meditation” and “Illumination”—have a dwarf-star density, a core of deep meaning variously and infinitely suggestive to each individual reader. Whether read as in a continuum or in isolation, these poems enlighten, sensitize and delight. They gently lead us to a garden of serenity and seclusion—one of the poet’s own central metaphors—where, for a moment at least, we can hear the soothing music of the spirit singing to itself in sheer exultation.

Joseph E. Roesch
Professor Emeritus of English, State University of New York
Author of Boudica, Queen of The Iceni
www.boudica-roesch.com

________________________________________________

i thought your work had a clarity and deliberateness that all good art has. Your feelings for the human condition are evident and compelling for the reader.

Steve Gibson
Artiist
www.stevegibsonart.com

________________________________________________

I've found this book to be a helpful facilitation tool for grief and loss support groups - it honors lives in transition, while encouraging the reader to take those first steps along a new life path - without sounding "preachy."

Beautiful insights into the often overlooked links between the cycles of human life and the natural world around us.

Barbara H. Brandt, CHC
Certified Grief and Bereavement Specialist