What Was and Is review by Lynette Esposito at North of Oxford

https://northofoxford.wordpress.com/?s=theresa+werba One of the most important aspects of poetry is that it presents a truth(s) as the writer interprets it. Theresa Werba does this in her collection What Was and Is Formal Poetry and Free Verse published by Bardsinger Books. As part of interpreting the truth, Werba offers an interesting preface to the tome by not only explaining the structure of the book, but also alerting the reader she has changed

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In the preface she also explains how it is divided into eight thematic sections and that the title of each section is a phrase from one of the poems in the section.  If she hadn’t told me, I am not sure I would have caught on.  It is a skillful technique to title the sections in this way and good communication to alert the reader. Each section experiments with form, In the first section, Writing is the Labor of the Mind, Werba presents the poem Sonnet for the Sonnet-Maker, Edward Oxenford on page thirty-two in sonnet form with the appropriate rhyme scheme, fourteen lines including the couplet ending.  The sonnet begins: