Book Review: Ariel’s Song by Dawn Pisturino

On By Lauren Scott, AuthorIn Book Reviews, Poetry

Ariel’s Song by Dawn Pisturino is a beautiful and evocative collection of sixty-five poems – a collection that she lovingly dedicates to her daughter whose name is Ariel. The poems were written over a period of three decades touching on topics of love, family, children, death, nature, and the unique. Some rhyme and others are free in their styles from traditional sonnets that invited me to contemplate, to twisted limericks that made me laugh. I had many favorites, but I’m sharing snippets from a few, otherwise, this review would turn into a novel.

Many poems brought a sense of nostalgia. “November” evoked memories of when the season changed into golds, yellows, and reds, the air brought a chill, and my parents were still with us, enjoying family weekends at our cabin – everyone was young, and the future looked brighter than ever.

When November came,
We sat around the kitchen table after dark,
Telling chilling tales
Of ghosts and other phantoms of the night,
While wooden logs crackled and burned
On the old stone hearth,
And a cold wind wrapped its spectral arms
Around the ancient wooden cottage…

Dawn writes of her late father in “Rapping” which stirred emotions of my mother-in-law who departed from our world over thirty years ago. Our daughter was born the same year that Diane passed, and one evening from downstairs, we heard footsteps on the carpeted staircase when our little girl was sound asleep in her crib. No one else was in the house with us. So, was it Diane stealing a glance at her first precious grandchild? We imagined it was, and so we believed.

As a nature lover with a grateful heart for each new day “When the Morning Comes” hit home and really should be hung on refrigerators:

When the morning comes,
Sun will shine with a different light,
Earth will glow in a brand-new way,
Moon will dance to a gayer tune,
Clouds of pain will float away.
Broken hearts will beat again,
Empty eyes will see new life,
Throats will open up and sing,
Hands will break the chains of strife…

“I Hate Snakes” made me laugh out loud, but I can relate so well to the sentiments. Dawn’s vivid imagery summoned me along to explore with her in ‘the jungle’ and her frightening experience with snakes reminded me of my first encounter with a spider, which eventually turned into arachnophobia, causing a never-ending turbulent relationship with the creepy-crawlies.   

I HATE SNAKES

I pushed open the creaky door to look inside
And froze in shock at what I saw:
Slithering, crawling, scaly snakes
Formed a moving carpet on the floor,
Entwining in an intimate embrace,
Lying together in a clump of shimmering bodies,
Moving slowly and surely in the rotten shadows.
We beat a hasty retreat
And never visited our ‘jungle’ again.
And that’s why, even today,
I HATE SNAKES!

Dawn’s collection of lovely, witty, and occasionally dark poetry, offers a verse and a sense of familiarity for everyone. Highly recommended for all poetry enthusiasts!

Dawn’s website: http://www.dawnpisturino.org

And social media links:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/dawn.pisturino
Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/people/Dawn-Pisturino-author/61557762414334
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/dawnpisturino
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/dawnpisturino/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/dawn-pisturino-a15498123/
Medium: http://www.medium.com/@dawnpisturino
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/dawnpisturino/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/WriterArizona
Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/user/Rare_Scare/
Tumblr: http://www.tumblr.com/arizonawriter

© Lauren Scott, Baydreamerwrites.com – All rights reserved.

Thank you for stopping by, and enjoy your weekend ahead! ❤️

My latest collection of poetry, touching on nature, love, and the mysteries of life
that would make a great for any holiday! Click on the image for your copy. Thank you! 💚

76 thoughts on “Book Review: Ariel’s Song by Dawn Pisturino”

  1. Wow! I am overwhelmed, Lauren, by your generosity! Thank you so much! This is such a beautiful and thorough review! I will post it on my blog later today, as I’ve posted a review of someone’s book, and I don’t want to detract from their creative effort. Again, thank you, my friend!

    1. You’re so welcome, Dawn, and I’m glad you’re happy with my review of your lovely book. I didn’t give you heads up either. I started writing and realized that I was ready to post. 🙂 💞

    2. Dear Lauren, Dawn and Everybody,

      Congratulations to Dawn on the publication of her sixty-five poems in a collection entitled “Ariel’s Song“!

      We hereby welcome our fellow poet Dawn Pisturino’s poems being featured so well in an excellent blog post of Lauren Scott!

      How evocative these lines are:

      On the old stone hearth,
      And a cold wind wrapped its spectral arms
      Around the ancient wooden cottage…

      Loving Nature, I can’t help but repeat the following lines:

      When the morning comes,
      Sun will shine with a different light,
      Earth will glow in a brand-new way,
      Moon will dance to a gayer tune,
      Clouds of pain will float away.

      I would like to resonate with such an imagery in the poem pictorially as follows:

      Lauren, I would like to commend you highly for featuring Dawn’s excellent poems. We all find many aspects of her poems to be memorable, authentic, imaginative and engaging. Thank you for your impressive effort here.

      May all of you have a very happy May and a fine late springtime doing or enjoying whatever that satisfies you the most, whether aesthetically, physically, intellectually or spiritually!

      Yours sincerely,
      SoundEagle🦅

      2. Dear Lauren,

        You are very welcome! I am very touched and impressed by your review and what you have done for Dawn.

        I have an extensive book review to prepare, but life keeps getting in the way. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get on top of things and get it published on my blog later this year.

        By the way, running the 📜 Collaborative Poetry Challenge ✍🏻 has been very time-consuming but satisfying. A lot has happened since. Many of the different sections of the post have been improved and expanded. There have been more bloggers taking part in the 📜 Collaborative Poetry Challenge ✍🏻. In reality, my post metaphorically entitled “📈🌆 Growing Humanity with Artificial Intelligence: A Sociotechnological Petri Dish with Latent Threats, Existential Risks and Challenging Prospects 👨‍👩‍👦‍👦🤖🧫☣️” provides much more than just the challenge. It is a great opportunity for readers to learn something in an analytical and critical way. As a concerned citizen, farseeing thinker, former educator and (largely) retired multidisciplinary academic, I tried my best to discuss and analyse the various issues and offer some solutions, as well as posing ten critical questions about the future of humanity and artificial intelligence.

        May you enjoy a lovely weekend!

        Yours sincerely,
        SoundEagle🦅

      4. Dear Dawn,

        My previous comment may not have got through. Here’s the second attempt.

        You are very welcome. Thank you very much for your heartwarming reply. Such a milestone of publishing your sixty-five poems in a collection entitled “Ariel’s Song” is not to be trivialized, unheeded or forgotten, and thus deserves a critical review from Lauren. I would hereby like to celebrate your milestone and resonate with your dedication to poetry by complementing the spirit and beauty of your poetry by inviting you to participate in the 📜 Collaborative Poetry Challenge ✍🏻 in my post metaphorically entitled “📈🌆 Growing Humanity with Artificial Intelligence: A Sociotechnological Petri Dish with Latent Threats, Existential Risks and Challenging Prospects 👨‍👩‍👦‍👦🤖🧫☣️“. The detail on how to participate in the challenge can be found in the said post published at

        📈🌆 Growing Humanity with Artificial Intelligence: A Sociotechnological Petri Dish with Latent Threats, Existential Risks and Challenging Prospects 👨‍👩‍👦‍👦🤖🧫☣️

        Overall, this post provides much more than just an avenue for some people to take up the challenge of exercising their minds and poetic flairs. It also presents a great opportunity for readers to learn something in an analytical and critical way. As a concerned citizen, farseeing thinker, former educator and (largely) retired multidisciplinary academic, I tried my best to discuss and analyse the various issues and offer some solutions, as well as posing ten critical questions about the future of humanity and artificial intelligence. After all, artificial intelligence is so ubiquitous nowadays that whether we like it or not, and regardless of the degree of our avoidance, disdain and/or apathy, our lives will be affected even in the absence of our knowledge in one way or the other.

        May you enjoy reading my said post during the weekend!

        Yours sincerely,
        SoundEagle🦅

  2. Thanks for sharing this review and introducing me to another poetry book, Lauren. Dawn sounds like a fabulous poet! I look forward to reading her book.

  9. Pingback: Lauren Scott’s Book Review of “Ariel’s Song” | Dawn Pisturino's Blog

  10. Congratulations to Dawn on the excellent review! I loved the excerpt from “When the Morning Comes.” As for the other excerpt, the imagery was way too vivid. Why? Because, I, too, HATE SNAKES!

  12. Lauren,

    You did a terrific review.

    Lol! The poem I HATE SNAKES made me laugh too.

    All of your selections are wonderful. It sounds like a rich treasure book of poetry.

    Thank you!

    🌟🌟🌹💖

    1. Thanks so much for reading, Steve, and for your kind words about my memory. That evening and hearing those footsteps are as vivid now as they were over 30 years ago. A remarkable moment indeed. 🤗

  16. Such a warm and enthusiastic review of Dawn’s book, Lauren. It’s incredibly kind of you, and it makes me so eager to give her book a good reading. Thanks for being a stalwart supporter of our community of wonderful writers, my friend! 😊

    1. I appreciate your kind and wonderful words about my review, Mike, and I’m sure Dawn will be thrilled with your support. I know you’ll love her book! Writing and sharing reviews comes naturally for the books that I truly enjoy, and reviews are like hugs for Indie Authors, and who doesn’t like a hug?! 🤗😀

  17. Oh yes. What wonderful words. This is a beautiful review. So happy I read. I’m sure Dawn is pleased. A wonderful collection I loved too. Thanks for sharing. Xoxo bless you both.

    1. Thanks for your lovely comment, Selma. I’m glad you liked my review, and I know Dawn was elated, which makes me feel good too. 🙂 It’s great that you loved her book also. I’m sure she is on Cloud 9 from all the support. xoxo

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