All the Power Rests With You

Suzanne Stutman
Manor House Publications (2005)
ISBN 0964826178
Reviewed by Irene Watson for Reader Views (12/06)


First glance at the book cover made me smile and I knew that I would be in for a treat.  The book cover has a child’s crayon drawing of a female with arms wide open and a smile on her face.  Any child or adolescent would relate to the cover.  However, a person that is child at heart would find the book “All the Power Rests with You” a delight as well as a way to appreciate poetry.  This book is a great way to start writing poetry.

Stutman’s book begins with a section called “Adventures in Writing Poetry.”  Here she starts off with a poem titled “My Declaration of Rights” which starts off like this:

I have the
Right
To be happy.
I have the
Right
To be safe.
I have the
Right
To protect and
Keep
Within my control
My own body.

This poem declares all the rights a child has including not being insulted or ridiculed, having the right to dream as well as a right to cherish life.  At the end of each part Stutman includes exercises that the reader can participate in.  Part 1 asks questions like: What does poetry mean to you? If you’ve never written a poem before, what made you decide to start?  Stutman also adds: I want to write a poem because: [fill in the blank.]
After the exercises the book has many blank pages to write poems in.

Other parts of “All the Power Rests with You” include:  Feeling Safe; Feeling Out of Place; Positive Feelings; The Future.  Each section includes poems, exercises and blank pages.

My favorite poem is “I am a candle in the light of myself”:
I
am
a
candle
in
the
light
of
my
self.
I
falter,
sometimes,
and
it
looks
like
I
am
going
to
sputter
and
die.
…
I
will
add
my
luminosity
to
the
Light
of
the
world.

How positive is this!  “All the Power Rests with You,” which is actually a workbook in itself, is a wonderful tool for children to go within themselves and bring out feelings in a safe and ingenious way. To me, that is what writing poetry is about.

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