Customer Reviews:

• "After half an hour of delight, I finished my perusing of Connie’s latest chapbook, HEART BLOSSOMS. She has selected a floating lotus blossom as her picture for the cover because of its deep meaning for her and begins page 1 with her poem “Lotus.” Connie experiments with a variety of forms in her new chapbook. Examples of forms are the Kyrielle and newer ones such as Pleiades, Cinquain, Etheree, and Chaselink. Her own invented form, the Constanza, is well represented with descriptive poems such as “The Birth of Spring” and the lovely “Enchanted Earth.” She also devotes three pages to Haiku toward the end of the book! Many of Connie’s poems are dedications to her friends and family, such as “Mahori,” a poem named for her daughter-in-law's niece, and alongside the poem is a picture of the toddler dressed in pink.
Connie’s several themes include her love for nature (the moon, sun, sea and the seasons) and her compassion for humanity, as well as sweet love poems such as “In Love’s Shadows,” “Love’s Embrace,” “My Honey,” and “I’d Like To Be Alone,” a cute free verse type poem in which she is daydreaming about being alone with a man when she is suddenly interrupted by a customer saying “Miss, Miss, I’d like another cup of coffee.” My favorite love poem of Connie’s, “Please,”compares her old lover to the wind, which is “enigmatic and elusive/Changes course without warning/ Has no heart or soul/ Feels no regret/ A little bit like you.”
Besides romantic love, there is the love for special people, and two very special poems appearing in Connie’s book are meant for two who have passed away, “To My Friend Dale” and “You Can Let Go,” in which she tells the loved one, “I love you, and will always love you. You can let go now.” Another of my favorites in this category was a poem that sparked my interest because I too am the eldest of my siblings. Connie’s “First Born” of her oldest brother who has disappeared from her life is very touching.
Being a long-time resident of Hawaii, Connie writes often of her beloved island home. I enjoyed in particular “The Islands of Hawaii” with the concluding line “and as a river separates into tributaries, the mixing of blood flows in many directions, exalting new life,” a line which also portrays her interest in the continuing journey of life which is also so eloquently described in “Celestial Journey.” Connie also seems especially fond of rain, wind and snow, of which she writes in the respective poems “Crystal Rain,” “Wayward Wind,” and “Winter Creations” with image-evoking words such as these found in “Wayward Wind’s” beginning lines: “The fierce wind has the trees at war today while the roses fight their battle with their thorns, stabbing their neighbors.” I always prefer poetry that uses figurative language, and Connie does this often, such as when she likens a boulder to a mother looking down on her rock children glistening in the sun in “Cathedral Rock” or when she paints a pretty picture of fall in her Acrostic poem “Autumn Season.”
Another theme appearing in Connie’s chapbook is that of the common bond of all humanity, and my favorites in this category are “Roses (of many colors), “Harmonious Relations,” in which she writes of different fingers on the same hand as a metaphor for different races of people, and “Such Is Life,” in which she makes a mockery of those who are too self-absorbed to concern themselves with the plight of others. Complementing the topic of humanity is Connie’s praise of something which many of her friends have gifted her with. It’s that thing which brings us to understand life and which she describes so fondly in the poems “Intimate Awareness,” “Library,” “Inspiration,” “You Know Who I Am,” and the poem I found to be the MOST enchanting poem in the whole book called “Enchantment.” That thing to which I refer is Poetry itself! I think of all her poems, I loved the poems in this category best because they show wherein Connie’s true passion lies. Notice how, after describing her feelings in “An Awesome Poem,” Connie writes, “You may feel so inspired by the strength and beauty, veracity and emotion contained, as to begin to write your own masterpiece!” Quite appropriately, Connie ends her chapbook with a poem entitled “My Gratitude,” in which she pays tribute to those whom she calls “my teachers” who gave her “this fabulous art” as she expresses to them, “Keep giving me precious gifts from your heart. My work, a labor that I’m certain of continues to be my labor of love.”" - Andrea Dietrich, Author of Friendship Garden, For the Love of Etheree, Challenging the Muse, and Dreaming the Unicorn

• "In this latest of her chapbooks, Connie Marcum Wong once again opens up her heart to demonstrate how each of us can open our own heart blossoms to the world around us.

In her poem “Love Blooms,” we read her wise thoughts:

          Love blooms
          for those who feel its grace
          at the feet of the towering Alps
          o’er the hillside’s face.

I can so closely identify to her poem “Enchantment,” where we read:

          Enchanted, she read poem after poem
          transfixed and captivated by their beauty.
          She glanced at the clock when she heard
          the garage door open and she realized
          the morning had blurred into late afternoon.

The heart of this poet is so beautifully spoken in this favorite of mine “You Know who I Am”:

          I express my longings
          through sensitive vibrations.
          Great poets resonate
          my sorrows and my gladness.
          I navigate on seas of sand.
          I am the eternal circle.
          My tears mingle with the seas.
          I seek solace amidst the redwood
          as they breathe lighter air.

Wong’s very own created poetry form, the Constanza, is featured in her insightful poem “Dominion," in which she says at the opening:

          Point of reference never came.
              I waited eons just to see
              The clever end of destiny.

...and at the closing:

          We endure life’s eternal flame.
              To live and learn can be sublime;
              Our birth and death are both divine.

In another picturesque Constanza, “The Birth of Spring,” we read of her love of nature. The final two stanzas express it beautifully:

          I delight and watch for hours,
              For truly at this time of year
              I feel God’s presence dwelling here.

          Blessed and touched by divine powers.
              The joy of springtime here on Earth
              is felt with every flower’s birth.

Several acrostic poems appear in this versatile chapbook, including one written for this writer entitled “Janice Eve,” with these final and very appreciated lines:

          Every kindness you have shown
          Voices the love and how you’ve grown.
          Enlightenment will now be known.

Wong’s poems of Hawaii reflect her love of her homeland for many years, as in the following excerpts:

          No matter what the time of day...
          Dawn, high noon, or twilight play,
          The sun on shimmering sunset sea...
          You are a paradise to me.
                    -"Hawaii”

          The familiar rhythm of the drums,
          the beauty of the dance,
          the haunting chants
          are still whispered by the wind.
          The ‘aina breathes and shares
          ‘ohana with her guests
          that come by ship, by plane;
          so unaware they walk with Gods.
                    -"The Islands of Hawaii”

Although there are many other poems in this chapbook I value deeply, I would like to close this review with the final stanza from a poem near the back of the chapbook entitled “Celestial Journey”:

          From twilight skies
          my thoughts take flight.
          Light shimmers from
          Galaxies light years away.
          Thus I know, our
          Universe is infinite.

This is one of my favorite chapbooks in my home library, and I find myself referring to it often. Whenever I want to find peace and a sense of universal belonging, I can always find it within the pages of Heart Blossoms." - Jan Turner, coauthor of Faery Folk & Fireflies