H.W. BRYCE - REVIEW – I ONCE WAS LOST BUT NOW AM FOUNDBY RENEE DRUMMOND - BROWN & NANCY NDEKE

H. W. Bryce​ is the author of Chasing a Butterfly (Friesen Press 2017) and his poetry appears in anthologies in Canada, the US, India, Bolivia and Spain. His poetry has appeared in poetry journals, such as the Ekphrastic Review and Neworld Review. Bryce also served as one of the judges for the Rabindranath Tagore International English Poetry Competition, 2017, India. With a degree in English and Journalism, Bryce is a member of the Federation of BC Writers, and several poetry societies. He frequents numerous poetry groups, does readings, and has been featured on radio. Bryce continues to advocate against Alzheimer’s and does poetry readings as well as workshops at care homes. He blogs at
https://www.facebook.com/herb.w.bryce/
H. W. Bryce turned to poetry in a big way when his wife was slowly dying with Alzheimer’s and he was sinking into that deep pool called depression. “Dr. Poetry” rescued him and nursed him back to health. He is now a full-time poet and writer. Bryce is a former journalist with Canada’s Globe and Mail and The Hamilton Spectator as well as the Worthing Herald in England. He has been a book editor, with Hamlyn House in London and Hancock House in Surrey, British Columbia. He has also been a sometime teacher, and a courier. He lives in the Metro Vancouver area, Canada.

REVIEW – I ONCE WAS LOST BUT NOW AM FOUND
BY RENEE DRUMMOND - BROWN & NANCY NDEKE

​TITLE: I Once Was Lost But Now Am found
AUTHORS:
Reneé Drummond-Brown, the United States of America, and Nancy Ndeke, Nairobi, Kenya
PUBLISHER: Independent-Author Reneé Drummond-Brown-Amazon-Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)
Amazon-Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) Paperback Book:
https://www.amazon.com/Once-Was-Lost-Found-understanding/dp/B08F6R3RKX/ref=sr_1_16?dchild=1&qid=1600718721&refinements=p_27%3ARenee%27+Drummond-+Brown&s=books&sr=1-16
 
Amazon-Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) e-Book:
https://www.amazon.com/Once-Was-Lost-Found-understanding-ebook/dp/B08F2ZZLWQ/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1600718721&sr=1-16
 
ISBN: 9798671178203           ASIN: B086FHMC5S
PGS:  120
 
 
This book is affirmation of life and love. It is also a plea for human dignity, acceptance, forgiveness, and positive action for recognition and self and racial affirmation. Your blood is my blood.
 
Set out in sections, the two authors, in a sort of call and answer meld, set out to recognize and honor the beginnings of the plight of the Black people in America.
 
In the title poem, Drummond-Brown sets the scene with the voice of a slave girl, intertwined with lines from the original song, even lines from the US national anthem, and then she twists the knife. “...and now I’m blind.”
 
Wow. Powerful. You know you are in for a great read.
 
Then comes the Oceanic Blues section. The opening poem sets the scene and the tone for the book. Africans were captured and sold into slavery, yet
 
“...my soul still manages
To find love
The best it can.”
 
“America was raised on “my” breast,” Drummond-Brown declares. It was, metaphorically and in underlying fact. This poem is dedicated to “the Wet Nurse Slaves.”

Good enough for children, they were, good enough for sex and rape, they were; but not good enough for personhood. This is the fight still going on. This is what these two authors are addressing. And quite timely too, what with the continuing killings of Black men, the most notoriously recent one being George Floyd.

I dubbed this “heroically courageous writing.” But all of it in this book is, by both writers. They have their hearts on the pulse. Zeitgeist.
 
Drummond Brown’s grounding in the Bible is always relevant to today; never tedious or overbearing; often so to the point that we wonder how we could have ever missed the point she so pointedly makes.
 
Ndeke picks up on the theme in “How Did We Get Here?” This is a hard-hitting anti-war, anti-exploitation poem.  
 
 
Where guns and bullets carry more weight than grain?…
…If only, we could Reason as we were created to be!
 
 
This flows smoothly into Drummond-Brown’s “Jaws,” the crammed “like sardine’ trip from Africa to America, followed by her “Negro HAND Me Downs...,” a portrait of the cotton picker’s life that offers a glimpse of the Brown family name, and so we learn as we enjoy this splendid book of poetry.
 
It also reveals, once again, the indominable spirit of the People.



Sangin’ in them fields; my HANDS clapped my FEETS’ stomped…
…These HANDS charmed and motivated the cotton pickers
To never give in, give out, or stop.
 
 
Though treated like hand-me-downs, the people held on to their dignity.
 
A couple of poems later, Drummond-Brown writes about the “Plight” of her people.
“Plight” could, perhaps should, be called Were You There? for the repetition of this rhetorical question. This challenge helps us to understand the “plight,” and why the people can ask of us,
 
 
Were you there? When dat slave girl was killed that day
They stole her away. And you, have nerve to wonder why?
You don’t get that right to understand our plight!
I’ve been there, cause she lives.
In da STEAL of my nights!
 
 
Their History, their life, is embedded within us today. We are all our history. We must understand each other’s history. We should all learn to see the hurt in each of us.
 
In “Slavery Recipe,” Drummond-Brown masters the art of sarcasm with finesse.
 
In the Rivers Run Deep section, Ndeke writes “Bathe,” an anguished cry against marital brutality—a reality in far too many lives—which, in her “She is He” poem she refers to as “generational stream.”
 
Her “It Isn’t Me” is a survival tale of Woman, who always does for you before herself, she the “willing potter,’ a “savior unsaved by her own.” Denial and defiance speaking the underlying sense of dignity. Dignity in suffering. Who is the spiritual winner here? Is she speaking of a denial of God? This writer makes you think.
 
And so, Drummond-Brown’s “The Negro River” truly does run deep.
 
Ndeke is a beautifully profound writer of the truth of how it is, in compatible contrast to the more colloquial Drummond-Brown. Both get at the root and the heart of the things of reality. Both are soulful.
 
And so, it goes, section to section, affirming the African Americans, telling their plight, affirming Love, affirming Life. All of that, and the Blacks still have much to teach the rest of us. Let us embrace each other.
 
So, perhaps ’nuff said. For I paused in my note taking to comment:
 
If you want Authenticity, read Reneé Drummond-Brown.
If you want Truth, read Nancy Ndeke.
If you want a damned good read, read “I Once Was Lost But Now Am Found.”
 
While “Once I Was Lost But Now Am Found,” is about the plight of a people, it is NOT a downer to read.
 
Indeed, it is most apropos in these days of Black Lives Matter. Let us make it so.
 
One uplifting aspect I found in the reading is the echo of the church in the lives of the early Black “settlers.” And the reference to the singing in the fields. And thereby the formation of gospel choirs, and all the great, great singers who have been weened there, and all the great, great music they have given us all.
 
And should not this great gift be rewarded with the gift of Personhood?
 
Just today as I worked on this review, I discovered the great singer Alicia Olatuji, the lady who sang at Obama’s second inauguration. She sang “Both Sides Now,” and she brought me to tears.
So, I ask, how the hell can anybody hate a whole race that produces talent like that? That is God given.
 
Can we see both sides now?
 
 
Conclusion:
 
This book tells it how it is, how it became, and, if we all answer its clarion call, how it CAN and SHOULD be. Read it for inspiration. And be brave; it is a call to action, however small or radical, in the cause of Peace through Peace, via dignity. We all deserve it. We have been lost. Let us allow ourselves to be found. Let recognition rule. So sayeth the authors. And each of these writers is a writer to be reckoned with. They have listened to Dr. Martin Luther King, in their collaborative poem “Dreams,” for instance; they are asking us, have we? Let us be quit of the us and them syndrome.
 
This book needs to be paid attention to.
 
 
 
About the Authors:

Reneé Drummond-Brown:
 
Reneé Drummond-Brown was born in North Carolina (Marine Brat) at Camp Lejeune U.S. Naval Hospital, to wonderful parents: Mr. & Mrs. Peter Charles Drummond of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She refers to her parents as being the sole reason behind her strength but God is the wind beneath her wings. She has traveled to Kenya, Africa on a Missions trip and has lived across the states on various Military Bases, including Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. Her siblings are Delbert Dwayne Drummond and the Late Pastor Shawn Charles Drummond. She is married to Cardell Nino Brown Sr., and the couple has three children: Cardell Jr., Raven, and Dr. Reneé Brown.
 
Drummond-Brown is a renowned author residing in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She holds a Master of Arts degree in creative writing with a concentration in poetry from Chatham University. She also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Christian Ministry Leadership with a minor in biblical theology studies, graduating summa cum laude from Geneva College of Western Pennsylvania. In addition, she received an Associate of Arts degree in Christian Ministry at The Center for Urban Biblical Ministry (CUBM), where she served as class president and graduated in the top 5% of her class.
 
While at CUBM, her writing career blossomed into Reneé’s Poems with Wings are Words in Flight, a phrase that eloquently coins her work. The dominant themes of her writings are spiritually based. She has been led to write about blacks’ history, The Civil Rights Movement, slavery, family, and the African American woman who at times is taken for granted. Drummond-Brown’s poems with wings metaphorically points to this scripture “And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth” Genesis 8:7 (KJV).
 
Drummond-Brown has published several poems, one of which was written for the Original Freedom Singer of The Civil Rights Movement, the legendary Ms. Rutha Mae Harris. The poem was published by Judith Hampton-Thompson, of The Metro Gazette Publishing Company, Inc., Albany Georgia. Drummond-Brown is the author of over 15 poetry books to date, and her work can be seen across the globe in various anthologies and magazines. Her poetry and essays have placed in several contests. She has received accolades each year since she started writing in 2013. Drummond-Brown is poet laureate to Valley View Presbyterian Church and offers community service to various churches, colleges, mission centers, senior events, and youth programs across Western Pennsylvania.
Drummond-Brown’s love for creative writing is undoubtedly displayed through her very unique style of poetry. When asked by others about her writing style, she posits “God’s word in The Holy Bible, King James Version, inspires my writings thereby making my poetry very different and unconventional.” She credits her writing to the following: God before all else, her late mother, and her college Professors who brought her writings up a notch from strictly creative to an academic style of approach challenging her to research and write poetry related to social injustices based on historical facts.
 
Drumond-Brown takes pride in this book I Once Was Lost But Now Am Found, published with co-author Nancy Ndeke of Nairobi, Kenya, connecting their lost lineage with both cultures’ weaving complex roots of bonds that surpass all understanding. Drummond-Brown has recently been awarded by Wildfire Publications Magazine, Poetess of the Month, and her poem "BLACK CRIMES MATTER,” poem of the month, also her works’ selected by the Scarlet Leaf Review's list for “Best of the Net” nominations 2018. She also graced the cover of KWEE Liberian Literature Review 2016. Her publications can be seen in Blys Global Magazine, cubm.org/news, Leaves of Ink Magazine, Pitch Vault Media, Raven Cage Poetry and Prose Ezine, Scarlet Leaf Publishing House, SickLit Magazine, Tuck, and Whispers Magazine. Because her work is viewed on a global scale this solidifies her as a force to be reckoned with in the literary world of poetry. Drummond-Brown is inspired by none other than Dr. Maya Angelou, and because of her, Drummond-Brown posits “Still I write, I write, and I’ll write!”
 
 
 
Nancy Ndeke:
 
Author Nancy Ndeke is a Poet of international acclaim who resides in Nairobi, Kenya. She is the Associate Editor, of Liberated Voices, and a reputable literary arts consultant. Her writings and poetry are featured in several collections, anthologies and publications across the globe.
Ndeke’s literature can be seen in The Wildfire Publications Magazine, Chief-in-Editor, Susan Joyner Stumpf, and Vice President Deborah Brooks Langford, as well as ARCS Magazine, New York, DR. Anwer Ghani, is Chief in Editor.
Ndeke Women’s Arts Presentation was recently published by Women of Art (WOA) in Cape Coast in Ghana. Soy Poesia, in Peru, Claudette V pg 11 featured her writings with great reception. AZAHAR, Mexico, with the initiative from Josep Juarez published Ndeke’s literary work. She is also recognized in the World Federation of Poets, and the World Festival of Poetry (WFP) by Luz Maria Lopez editorial team. Both are in Mexico.
Ndeke is a loyal contributor to several journals: Resident contributor of the Brave Voices Poetry Journal, African contributor to Different Truths, a publication that sensitizes the world on the plight of Autism edited by Aridham Roy., Save Africa Anthology, edited by Prof. Dave Gretch of Canada, and reviewed by Joseph Spence Jr., who has also featured her poetry and other works on issues afflicting Africa, and Africans.
Agron Shele, of Atunis Galactika, a world poetry promoter has showcased several of her poetic works, along with Atunis 2020, Anthology. Radio show Host Patricia Amundsen, of Australia featured her poetry on the International Women’s Day at Messenger of Love Radio Station.
In addition to her body of works, Ndeke has collaborated on projects with Author Reneé Drummond-Brown in her book, Tried, Tested and True Poets from across the Globe, and short stories, poetry and Novel collaboration with Professor Gameli Torzlo of Glassgow University,  “Mazungumzo ya Shairi,”which is registered with the Library of congress in The United States of America. 
 
 
About the Reviewer:
 
H. W. Bryce:
 
H. W. Bryce is the author of Chasing a Butterfly (Friesen Press 2017) and his poetry appears in anthologies in Canada, the US, India, Bolivia and Spain. His poetry has appeared in poetry journals, such as the Ekphrastic Review and Neworld Review. Bryce also served as one of the judges for the Rabindranath Tagore International English Poetry Competition, 2017, India. With a degree in English and Journalism, Bryce is a member of the Federation of BC Writers, and several poetry societies. He frequents numerous poetry groups, does readings, and has been featured on radio. Bryce continues to advocate against Alzheimer’s and does poetry readings as well as workshops at care homes. He blogs at
https://www.facebook.com/herb.w.bryce/
H. W. Bryce turned to poetry in a big way when his wife was slowly dying with Alzheimer’s and he was sinking into that deep pool called depression. “Dr. Poetry” rescued him and nursed him back to health. He is now a full-time poet and writer. Bryce is a former journalist with Canada’s Globe and Mail and The Hamilton Spectator as well as the Worthing Herald in England. He has been a book editor, with Hamlyn House in London and Hancock House in Surrey, British Columbia. He has also been a sometime teacher, and a courier. He lives in the Metro Vancouver area, Canada.