Review of "On My Way Rejoicing," by Emma Safley

Review of

On My Way Rejoicing, by Emma Safley 

Four out of five stars

 The author is one of the many people that lived in the Midwest as it went from very rural to modern. She was born in 1912 in Clinton, Iowa and this book was published when she was 82. Safley had lived in Springville, Iowa since 1943 and worked at many jobs as well as being a wife and  mother.

 The book contains a set of short verses that puts down her thoughts regarding what she has experienced as the  modern conveniences such as electricity, telephones, paved roads and automobiles became everyday parts of the lives of the people in her area.

 The verse is generally quite good, demonstrating that literary talent is more ubiquitous than most realize. Safley worked as a teacher in an elementary school and her writing has emerged as a passion in her later years. She writes about everyday things as well as the passage of time and how it changes all of us as well as the world around us.

 There are no “Wows!” in this book, just simple verse put down by a talented writer that has seen and experienced many things during her life of over eighty years. The saddest one is about the two old gray sisters that lived in a house on the edge of town.