Customer Reviews:

• "Emily Romano is a master poet of any form in which she chooses to express herself. She possesses the ability to manipulate language powerfully and in few words. Any of her collections is well worth owning. I recommend A Celtic Feeling for its music and storytelling." - Carolyn Thomas

•           She poured her spirit into air
          And for a while it lingered there...
                        (excerpt from Soul’s Journey)

"In Emily Romano’s newest chapbook, A Celtic Feeling, she herself pours her own spirit into the air as she shares with us the Welsh voice within her soul. In these poems, I found myself taken on an extraordinary journey, reminiscent of Gaelic stories that whisper familiarity from long ago. A hint of herbology and old healing ways jumps from the lines in The Witch Of The Wood:

          Her touch upon a fevered brow
          Was like a drift of snow;
          No one who knew her could say how
          She healed like sunlight’s glow.

          Hers was a craft of herbs and such,
          She knew their certain worth;
          And yet, folks swore her gentle touch
          Seemed to invoke rebirth.

River Journey is a poem of motion, as we follow a log moving along a downward river current. Again, there is a theme of witches (of nature), but are they are part of the river’s essence or nature’s spirits of protection?

          Wild water foams around it,
          The current does its thing...
          The log is carried swiftly
          While river witches sing.

In Rebellion, we feel the emotion of suggested clan wars from generation to generation:

          Rebellion would not ease their lot,
          Though some of them were very hot
          To seek out more of those strange men
          Who’d ruined Eden once again.

          Years passed and young men, tall and strong,
          Were eager now to right the wrong,
          Were ready now to go to war;
          And so it happened as before.

Emily’s green-covered chapbook with the double-hearted tree is a charming chapbook to have ready at one’s fingertips to bring back A Celtic Feeling with just a turn of the pages into 40 delightful poems that reflect Celtic history and folklore." ~Jan Turner, author of Reflections of The Inner Eye, coauthor of Faery Folk & Fireflies.

• "Love, longing, and loss are woven on a loom of wonder to create the fabric of Emily’s new chapbook, A CELTIC FEELING. Many of these poems are nature related, and whether the setting is a plain, a field, or a river, a strong current of emotion runs throughout this wonderful collection. While it was difficult for me to choose two favorite poems from the many I enjoyed, below I have quoted “Welcome Rain” and “Into a Field of Flowers” in their entirety.

        Welcome Rain

        When the crops from thirst had wilted,
        And all the land seemed sere and gaunt,
        The men looked dour, the women wept,
        And urchins had no will to taunt.

        Then, when a thundercloud appeared,
        Hope leapt in every troubled breast!
        The thought of rain was welcome here;
        A plowman beat upon his chest.

        Alas, the storm clouds passed them by;
        No rain fell on the arid earth;
        The women turned and with a sigh
        Forlornly sat beside the hearth.

        But in the dark of night there came
        The welcome sound of gentle rain.
        The people went outside to feel
        The rain to see if it was real.


        Into A Field of Flowers

        Into a field of flowers we wandered,
        By end of day we knew we had squandered
        Hours on pleasure amid flowers there,
        For what else on earth is there to compare
        With daisies and their wide open faces,
        Flowers that maidens tucked between laces
        Of bodices, like the common folk wear?

        Into a field of flowers we wandered,
        Petal by petal, one question pondered:
        A question of love me or love me not.
        Innocent daisies were scattered to rot;
        Only a few tucked into moist cleavage
        Lasted daylong, a miniscule salvage;
        Daisies as prophets were slain on the spot.

As the title suggests, A CELTIC FEELING has a pervasive Celtic essence; a blend of moors and of moonlight, of rivers that pool and of rivers in spate, of faeries and of mystery, and of timeless battles lost or won. Yet the feelings that surface in these poignant poems are universal and will reverberate long after the book is put aside. Emily’s style, lyrical and often deceptively simple, results in poems that beg to be read again and again." - Margaret R. Smith