In the 21st century world of poetry, Tom Ruben’s Memory Mining’s and other Probing, a collection of compelling, engaging and enthralling poems. 

The collection of 83 poems are all descriptive and well versed poems depicting different varied themes and subjects around capturing images signified through personification and Metaphorical Language on human life experiences/memories. The poems are based on themes such as feelings, partnerships, families, seasonal poetry e.g. summer, winter, Christmas treats, Christmas party, weather poetry, building up memories, natural disasters, and earthquakes in Turkey. Hope and assurance, Greek plays, films. 

Heritage, loneliness, pandemic, architecture, meditation, galleries, tourism, street, heat wave, parks, tree tops, stars, face, avalanches, weapons. Walks in Westminster, crossing bridges, planet poetry such as twilight moon, sun, human maps- cartography, limits, crawling, trains, between darkness, transformation- changes. 

The poems are free verse, short verse and long verses. Some have question marks in them.

Ruben uses very descriptive language in poems to personify the subject of the poem and to give readers a clearer insight and deeper understanding of the meaning behind each of the poems and signifying the deeper context of the symbolism behind each poem. Maybe representing the poems in memories context of people’s lives in subject form using metaphorical language to describe the subject in human context with specific descriptive words in extreme detail for example the poem between two darkness could be interpreted as eyes opening, closing in seconds and seeing darkness with no light with lids opening and closing each day. 

The poet is trying to express the ideas of eyes opening and shutting to the readers by writing about darkness coming through the centre of the eyes iris in between darkness of blinks of a second, maybe in his trail of the thought he was thinking to express his poem in strong attention to detail using free verses and describing the lines in metaphorical terms.  The humanist and philosophical thinking behind each poem each depict different meanings and are interpreted by different reader’s minds. 

My personal opinions for the poetry collection, is all the poems were different and held a strong philosophical compelling description of metaphorical analysis In shorter verses with relaying different meanings of symbolism to personify the theme of the poem and add extreme strong adjectives to describe distinctive features and specific details for example in the poem between two darkness for eye lids opening and closing to see dark when seconds shut. The poems also I feel relate to a lot of personal humanistic experiences for example to seasonal poetry, and weather poetry and Christmas by shared experiences of people’s festive seasons. The existentialism of philosophical trains of thoughts of Tum Ruben’s poetry is highlighted in the deeper symbolism of poems of changes, hope, loneliness, reassurances, human map, cartography, natural disasters such as earthquakes in Turkey, and the roles of nuclear family genetic partnerships to evoke humanistic feelings and emotions and for the reader to feel more engaged and compelled to reader further in the moment of time of memories. Thus to evoke reader’s feelings such as shock aesthetics from the livelihoods destroyed and aftermath emotions such as trauma from earthquake In turkey taking innocent lives and the aftermath affects on humanity in the war poem on weapons, feeling scared for humanity and families sustainability of longetivity of life left surveying from war and earthquakes. 

Partnerships is a poem about family bondage for example the mother with a young boy, or meeting connections with other people to form friendships when they grow older from parenthood, relation to psychological genetics of parents. 

Poems on Peril. 

The pandemic poem was about the Corona Virus Outbreak that spread in 2020. The poem describes the affects of the virus in a nutshell and social distancing rules.  The poet was trying to relay the message of how serious the pandemic was during 2020 in poetic terms of describing how humanity reacted to the corona virus outbreak by using metaphorical language to describe the outbreak’s affects on humanity. In doing so his trail of thought led the readers to believe the adverse affects of corona virus put a halt on humanity’s life and a halt on social life especially In the context of a poem. 

The poem’s description carries out the specific ideas in the way the poem was expressed in the affects described with the language of specific contextual metaphorical analogy for example humans cannot touch anything to avoid the spread of disease. 

The poems based on Christmas, treats and Christmas morning work office parties are described as people’s experiences of what they might have celebrated and how they celebrated in work offices in mornings, descriptive metaphorical language by Ruben to give a deeper context and insight into the meaning behind Christmas joy and fun to readers. Tom Ruben’s thought trail of poems led by people’s experiences of Christmas and used colloquial simplistic language in inviting the reader to know about school Christmas treats, how children ate the meals and for example create perhaps strong visual imagery of depicting how Christmas morning office parties look like in readers mind by analysing the work office parties. 

The poems based on natural disasters, Avalanches and earthquake, describes the natural disaster in Turkey in 1999 and how this experience led to death toll, potential chaos, grounds shaking. Avalanche poem also had descriptive metaphorical language used to describe the disaster and crisis at the present moment in time. Tom Ruben used descriptive metaphorical terms to represent the after affects of the earthquake and avalanches in both poems he both signified the ideas of natural disasters to depict the feelings that humanity will experience loss, tragedy and chaos perhaps trauma and captured those visual images of shock aesthetics the after affects of the earthquake in other terms humanity’s expressions in the readers’ mind. 

The poems based on the subject tourism and art, national portrait gallery and portrait of a boy (1542) describes art also using metaphorical descriptive language in detail. Tom Ruben is inviting many readers to perhaps engage in tourism and art, perhaps in his poem using descriptive terminology, tour around the infamous national portrait gallery in London and invites the readers to question deeper meanings into the symbolism behind the portrait of a boy poem to question the artist’s expressions in a poem in the 15th century art. 

The poems a walk around Westminster, Parliament’s tallest tower, meditation in mall London, based on tourism and architecture also describes people’s experiences when touring and walking around Westminster, parliament tallest towers in terms of signifying architecture and meditation experiences in London. The main concepts and ideas expressed in these poems was the description to represent tourism and historical architecture in London to the readers. Also meditation the key to spiritual balance to encompass both mind, body and spirit for Londoneners who want to connect to meditation from stressful weeks of work. 

The poems based on Heritage, the impersonal immense and Heritage also use descriptive metaphorical language to analyse heritage and identity of where they come from and their inheritance.  Heritage was based on someone’s families belongingness passed on traditions. 

The poems 'THE SCHOOL OF ATHENS' (A speculation on the painting of the above title, by the Renaissance artist Raphael, depicting a scene in Plato's Academy, 4th century BC.)

Based on a painting a metaphorical language depiction on painting of Plato in the renaissance of Athens, descriptive language used to signify the painting with describing the school of Athens in plato’s academy, how the people are dressed and their positions in society, body sculptures full length, one dressed in red and other blue i.e. Aristotle and Plato.

Poems on walking, First Street, trees and parks, The concourse in the Park, Beyond the tree- tops, poems use descriptive metaphorical language to analyse the park experience and their sightings above tree tops such as cars passing by.  The main concepts and ideas described in the poem are in connection to walking, going on tree tops seeing sights below and witnessing all traffic go pass with the use of metaphorical and descriptive terminology. 

THE OPENING SCENE OF ORPHEE ( Orphee is a celebrated French film, made in 1950, and directed by the poet Jean Cocteau. It presents a modern version of the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. However, the poem which follows is not about the main part of the film.)

The poem describes the main part of the film opening scene of Orphee.

The poem on hope on assurance is to reassure people of hard times, hope, light at end tunnel and enlightening subliminal messages of reconciling positivism.  The poem was based on the concept of human hope on assurance of hardship situations and overcoming obstacles in a positive light.

The poem on weapons was based on power balances and controlling wrestling. 

The poems on weather winter noon to winter dust, summer are also abut twilight moon, poem on stars. The poems ideas relate to the weather, the sun and summer, winter cold, and twilight moon of walking with families, personal experiences and poem on stars, inviting the readers to imagine astronomy the subject of physics in very descriptive colloquial terms. 

There are also very detailed poems on faces, facial identities, face expressions, meeting another person’s looks, trains, on board trains describing in detail in metaphorical language the people’s memories and experiences of a train, human map signifying cartography of locations, sights and places, limits, poem’s ideas specifically describing the boundaries of human limitations and transformation, changes in people circumstances in a descriptive metaphorical language, written in long verses and shorter sentences with questions and experiences of people walking on street in street poem and crossing bridges in crossing bridges poem. 

                        ______________________________________________

One: What types of poems have you written for this book?

          The book is subtitled ' A Collection of Philosophical Poems,' and the word 'philosophical' is intended to convey the idea of poems which stimulate not just the reader's sense-faculties but also his/her capacity for wide-ranging general reflection, and even conceptual thinking.

Two: What are the main subjects/themes of these poems? 

         As the text shows, the poems are divided into seven theme groups—which, as a reminder, are the following:--1) The Corridor of History  2) What We Fashion  3) Powers Beyond Ours   4) End-Point   5) By-Ways of Love    6)  Early Years  7) Different Scenes, Different Lights. These headings indicate, in a general way, the variety of themes which the poems cover. But, of course, within every theme-group there is further variation, as individual poems vary from each other in idea and focus. Overall, what I have tried to do is to provide as wide a spectrum for emotional and intellectual response as is possible within the limits of what is only a  medium-sized selection of poems.

Three: What made you write this collection of 83 poems?

           The wording of the question actually creates a misunderstanding of the situation. The collection was a gleaning of a certain number of poems from a larger number—all of which had already been written. So, the whole process of putting the book together was a retrospective one.

Four: Who inspired you to write 83 poems?

           Again, the question-wording, misrepresents the situation. No specific person inspired me to write the poems in question, or to select them from the ones I didn't choose to include.

Five: Who is the target audience readers for your poetry?

          A good question, but not one I can answer with any extreme precision. Given the variety of theme and subject-matter, I have to say that my wished-for audience is very diverse, in age, social situation, quality of experience, cultural orientation. 

Six: What are the main messages you want to send to readers overall?

       Again, with reference to the collection's scope of theme and content, I would say that the 'main message' is the hope that my work will help the reader to better understand his/her own experiences, and likewise those of other people—which equally call for sympathetic comprehension.

Seven: In general, what are the overall hidden messages that the poems are trying to signify?

           In fact, there are no 'hidden messages' in the poems. All the points I wish to convey in the texts, are, I would say, inferable from the material I present—either explicitly or implicitly. Of course, no competent poet 'telegraphs' messages to the reader, but that fact doesn't prevent the effective transmission of meaning.

Eight: Why did you choose to write these types of poems?

          I've always been an experimenter in poetic form and structure, though never a highly ambitious one; and this approach has applied to the writing of all the poems I chose for this book.

Nine: Do you think your poetry will be an engaging read for readers?

        Well, given everything I've said so far, I certainly hope so. As a poet, all I can do is my stuff, and keep my fingers crossed.

Ten: Who is your favourite poet?

            I find this impossible to answer, if what is sought is just one poet. All I can say is that I am drawn strongly to a number of poets, all of the last 200 years. These are: Matthew Arnold, Thomas Hardy, W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, R.S. Thomas and Philip Larkin.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B089CQRWT8/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07PFN6N1P?notRedirectToSDP=1&ref_=dbs_mng_calw_0&storeType=ebooks

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08286X3TN?ref_=dbs_p_pwh_rwt_anx_cl_1&storeType=ebooks