Waves Of You

Love Poems

Poetry - Love/Romance
192 Pages
Reviewed on 05/10/2021
Buy on Amazon

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Author Biography

Michelle G. Stradford is the author of best selling empowering self-love poetry collection, "I'm Rising: Determined. Confident. Powerful." Among the inspirations for her writing is the desire to use poetry and prose to uplift women and girls. Michelle's poetry has earned several awards and is published in edition VII of the Heron Clan Literary Anthology. Waves of You: Love Poems is her fourth published book.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Jose Cornelio for Readers' Favorite

In Waves of You: Love Poems, Michelle G. Stradford pulls readers into a romantic stream and offers a rhythm that keeps the heart pulsating as she leads them from one strong emotion to another, unveiling a love language that is nuanced and an experience that is both uplifting and inspiring. Anyone who has loved deeply will feel their experience finds words in most of the poems. Divided into three different parts — Waves, Currents, Immersed — the poems explore love in its multilayered nature.

The experience of swimming beside one’s love, of holding their hand and bathing in the rays of their sun, filling the emptiness of loss, and surrendering to the charm of their embrace are a few of the images evoked in the first poems. But the experience deepens as the reader moves to the second part of the poems, with gestures that come from instinct, gazes that contain energy, to spiritual elements of love, like finding refuge in the lover’s heart. The poet speaks about the urgency of love and passion, of kisses that lead to the “top peak of Sierra Nevada,” and the deep dive to the Pacific floor that fills her with wonderment.

The metaphorical style of writing is one of Michelle G. Stradford’s gifts and she uses it with strong imagery to transport readers through each layer of her experience of love. Even when she speaks of intimacy, it feels like diving into the ocean and being inundated with all that is lovable. Waves of You: Love Poems is a collection of poems that celebrate the subject of the poet’s love in an uplifting lyrical style, capturing thoughts and emotions that are timeless and universal. The short poems are loaded with symbolism, imagery of nature, and simile, and the reader appreciates the different ways love is perceived, received, and given. It is a gorgeous offering that should be wrapped in a gift for the one who shares your heart.

K.C. Finn

Waves of You: Love Poems is a collection of poetry penned by author Michelle G. Stradford in the romance genre. It is suitable for the general reading audience. The book contains a collection of poems around the theme of passionate romance at all stages of development, whether that be the initial electricity of attraction between two people or all the way to the robust and comforting love that has bound two people together for decades. This book is a celebration of the heart and the feelings that draw two people together for life.

Poet Michelle G. Stradford delivers a beautiful and thought-provoking collection of poems that can be enjoyed whatever your experience of love in life. From the moment I started reading the poems, I found it hard to put the book down and enjoyed that despite sharing a common theme, each poem was significantly different from the last. One of my favorite things about this collection is that I feel they have the potential to connect with people from different backgrounds, who have had different experiences from one another. My personal favorites from this collection were ‘Beautiful Words’, ‘Intrigued’ and ‘Ocean of Songs’, which I felt particularly highlighted the author’s talent for creative imagery and writing that touches the heart. I found the tone of the poems fresh, exciting, and meaningful and I look forward to reading more of Stradford’s work in the future. I would not hesitate to recommend Waves Of You to fans of emotional, raw, and passionate poetry and those who are looking for poems that will resonate with them.

Asher Syed

Waves of You by Michelle G. Stradford is a collection of original poetry that revolves around the universal but wholly subjective emotion of love. Stradford focuses on romance and all told presents a formidable compilation of several dozen pieces of her work. They range in tone and tenor throughout with pieces such as the six-line Complete Love, a poem that compares the pull of the ocean and the fight to overcome it to the perseverance and strength of desire. The oceanic theme is also used in Dangerous Tides but with a love that hints at issues surrounding trust. The effortlessness of love that ebbs as a relationship ages is brought forward in Heartstrings, touching on transitions of the body and connecting them to love's endurance.

Michelle G. Stradford has a talent for allegory, a strength that is abundantly clear in Waves of You. It took me a few poems before I was able to declare myself all-in as the poems genuinely do become far deeper and more stirring as the reader progresses. My favorite poem is Overtaken and the absolutely gorgeous way she connects the symbolism of two souls in a garden wherein one knew there would be space for both but fully blossoms when an unexpected degree of nurturing allows for the type of unapologetic entanglement that a love for the ages will possess. The lyrical verses and creative stanzas make for great variety with the benefit of free verse and owing to this, as well as Stradford's collective understanding of romantic love through its versatility, gives the reader a bit of everything in a well-crafted book. Very highly recommended.

Trisha Dawn

Michelle G Stradford’s Waves of You is a collection of sweet love poems. It starts with the poem “Finding You”, flawlessly portraying the beginning of love, and ends with the poem “Waves of You”, which perfectly describes the overflowing feelings of love as time passes. Come and read Waves of You with your significant other and feel the authenticity and affection behind the message of each poem!
Waves of You is a timeless, flawless, and beautiful piece of work. It is filled with heartwarming and heartfelt poems by Michelle G Stradford. I feel like I have experienced love all over again just from reading these delightful, endearing poems. I could tell that each poem was made from genuine feelings and emotions.

This book is clearly a labor of love by Stradford. Every poem tells a story about how beautiful it is to be in love with someone and to be loved by them. It speaks of love that withstands the test of time. My personal favorite would be the poem “Stronger Us”, which accurately describes how true love can withstand any trials and that each trial would make the bond stronger than before. Selected poems in the collection such as “Renewed”, “Beyond Sweet”, and “Unwavering Faith” echo the author’s authentic feelings and emotionally transported me through the memories of a serene love. Waves of You certainly captured my heart from its very first poem and kept hold of it right to the very end. This book perfectly described the beauty of falling in love and staying in love through the art of poetry. I absolutely would love to read more collections of poems written by Michelle G Stradford. Well done!