Angela van Breemen’s Whispers in the Dancing Wind is a reflective, tripartite poetry collection that explores the intersections of nature, humanity, and modern life. Divided into three distinct sections, the collection opens with poems that both critique humanity’s destruction of the natural world and honour Mother Nature herself. Van Breemen’s attention to detail lends many of these pieces an impressionistic quality, capturing nature in vivid, poetic fragments. The second section turns inward, examining what it means to be human through reflections on relationships with family and friends. In doing so, van Breemen offers the reader a mirror by which to see themselves. The final section shifts toward broader social commentary, exploring changes in Western life over the past half-century. The collection wavers between free verse and couplets, with variations in rhyme and structure. Its greatest strength lies in the use of rhyming couplets, particularly in the first section, where thoughtful and inventive phrasing creates unexpected connections within the natural world. While the prosody occasionally feels uneven, these moments of structural imbalance are often offset by sharp, intelligent observations that drive the reader to consider new relationships between all of nature’s parts. One of the standout pieces, however, appears in the second section, based on a poem by Pablo Neruda on memory. Van Breemen’s variation of Neruda’s themes offers a compelling exploration of memory and mortality, illustrating how closely the two are intertwined. The only notable limitation of the collection lies in its thematic selectivity. In the final section, a poem addressing how some Muslim women dress feels limited in nuance. While clearly intended as social commentary, its perspective leans on familiar second-wave feminist framing without fully incorporating the lived experiences or voices of the women it references. As a result, the poem may feel generalized in its approach, and some readers may find themselves wanting a more layered and expansive exploration. As a result, this piece stands apart from the collection, rendering the aforementioned poem somewhat of a thorn in the collection’s side. At its best, Whispers in the Dancing Wind offers thoughtful, introspective poetry that encourages readers to reflect on their relationship with both the natural world and each other. For readers drawn to reflective poetry or a critical take on modern life, this collection provides moments of insight, connection, and contemplation. —CANREADS BOOK REVIEW Published by Iconic Scribes Press www.angelavanbreemen.ca Instagram: @angela_van_breemen