The Activist Poet: Volume IV
Stewart F. Brennan
Independently Published (2025)
ISBN: 979-8349411267
Reviewed by Tammy Ruggles for Reader Views (06/2025)
The Activist Poet: Volume IV by Stewart F. Brennan beautifully and powerfully illustrates the importance of poetry with meaning and purpose. Within these lyrical lines lies truth, and a quest for awakening and change. It takes a mind and a talent like Brennan’s to write poetry that serves mankind by making us think about the world we live in and how we can impact it. These are more than mere pretty rhymes on a page. These are deep truths that echo something close to a warning that if we don’t sit up, look around, and advocate for change, our chance to do so may be lost sooner than we think.
Brenan’s style is deceptively easy and simple. Don’t let it fool you. This poet delves into what’s happened to our world between the 1970s and now. What happened? How did we get here? What does our future hold? He is far from a doomsday prophet, yet there is something sober and prophetic in the lines he writes, that certain feeling of “If we don’t get this right, it could be too late.”
Besides examining society’s issues, the author offers possible remedies. Poetry has always been a voice crying in the wilderness, but Brennan’s work feels fresh and immediate with current events. He’s saying things that will resonate with you in a personal way.
One of my favorite topics that he talks about is biorhythms and how we’re basically electric humans, and that we should be mindful of how we see ourselves, our well-being, and one another. He touches on a myriad of subjects, from health to spirituality, to world power, so you will always be surprised when you come to each poem.
Equally surprising is the depth of emotion conveyed in such sometimes brief poems. For example, “Stepping Through the Nightmare” is a dark and tumultuous poem that succinctly captures those feelings you have when waking from a nightmare, but this poem goes a step further and relates it to facing the nightmare that sometimes awaits us in our world in waking hours.
Accompanying the poems are the poet’s thoughts on said poems or on related topics. If a poem speaks of tyranny, then you’ll find a discussion after it about world power.
But to avoid leaving the impression that this book of poetry is doom and gloom, just know that this beautiful language also covers positive, uplifting themes such as hope, community, family, and possibility. One poem may call out the injustices of the world wrought by selfish leaders, while another talks about spring returning and waking up, and another on conscious light, and time. Yet they all dovetail together into a marvelous work of poetry, political and social commentary, and a clarion call for change. There are resource links at the end of the book for further study on the topics the poems discuss, which will be appreciated by readers who feel called to action by these works.
If you care about justice, truth, equality, and the future of the world, or want to read the gorgeous phrasings of a gifted mind and poet, you must read “The Activist Poet: Volume IV” by Stewart F. Brennan.