Kodachromes at Mid-day

Jenifer Lepiano was a writer and drama teacher in Toronto.

From an accomplished poet, this is a pleasant and readable collection. Taken together the poems retell two ancient stories — the story of love’s progress from new to old and Everyman’s journey from youth to death. The settings are pastoral. In “Coming Home” she turns with relief from the city:

But once home her eye turns from a radiant nature, inward:

There is a devotional tone in these couplets, and in poems such as “Believer,” which gives the lines a solemn, almost hymn-like quality. In other, weaker poems (such as “Learn Your Heart”), Douglas’s professed faith in love carries a scent of the greeting card. The best of Kodachromes at Mid-day are descriptions of moments of passage, fragrant in the simplicity and accuracy with which they are captured, not only in the high light of love but along with its accompanying human shadows.