Review: IndieReader Review
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 08 8, 2012
Awakening's Treasure is "about who we think we are, waking up to who we are. It's about the urge to awaken always going on within us, pushing us along our destined way."Author G.A. Codakiz presents 184 short verses and 26 dialogues in the hopes to  "suggest and evoke, not explain or elaborate, with imagery compressed to suggest several facets at once." The author does succeed with his intention to "calm the mind and open the heart" with verses that sometimes contains less than original images and metaphors, but have a smooth flow to the verse that elicit introspection:"Ego-mind is a factory mass-producing wants and worries,A walking time bomb that ultimately self-destructs.Awakening's work defuses it, a delicate operation,Removing what's false, revealing Self in its Oneness."Also:"This may be a sea change time when our inner Ocean rains its grace,A rising tide lifting all our boats.Though unlocking the gates to our inner garden,Such a gift doesn't displace our readiness to enter."Though the verses are uplifting and thought provoking and somewhat reminiscent of the style of verse of Kahlil Gibran's works and the Tao Te Ching, the questions and answer format of the `dialogues' that begin each section break up the flow and open thinking of the verses and work against the author's intention of merely suggesting and evoking, rather than explaining and elaborating. Also, the author hints at the confusion that the text might create in the introduction: "taking a look at The Big Picture may be helpful. It presents an overview of what this writing is based on and amplifies what's unspoken between the lines." The Big Picture is contained in the conclusion and is an explanation of sorts of what the verses allude to through their images. Once again, the format of the conclusion is more of a straight narrative text, rather than verse or dialogue format and again detracts from the flow of the book, because it serves to explain rather than allow a more free-flowing inspiration from words, as stated in the original intent of the book.Though some reorganization for consistency in style and intention might improve overall effectiveness of the book, the verses in Awakening's Treasure are both soothing and stirring.Reviewed by Maya Fleischmann for IndieReader