When I Flew

When I Flew is a collection of modern, lyrical poetry, covering a range of topics from social and political to fantasy. While some of the poems are reactionary, responding to current events, most are inspirational, informing the debate at hand and bringing important concepts to light.

When I Flew spans the last twenty or so years of author Gary A. Lucero's life, and include short, concise pieces as well as longer, somewhat epic ones. War and its uselessness is a common theme, but religion, social inequity, government corruption and interference, love, death, and more fill the pages of this book.

While some subjects are handled with a heavy hand and bluntly throttled, others are more delicately dealt with, and the overall feel of this collection is one of desperation and an unwillingness to accept the status quo. We as a race and a planet are being threatened, and at least some of those threats are dealt with here, but never with kid gloves.

And while Gary A. Lucero's treatment is not always subtle, it is always thorough. Most themes are recurring, spanning the entirety of the book, which ties it all together with a cohesiveness and makes When I Flew's collection of poetry worth reading again and again.