Anna Iourenkova’s book, Back to Myself or My Way Towards Happiness, thoughtfully reflects on many stages of life through heartfelt, discerning verse. Iourenkova’s introduction lays the foundation by describing the subsequent text as a self-reflective guide to inspire the reader to embrace his or her own path. She covers temporal topics, like career paths, the turbulence of love, and perceptions of femininity, as well as more consecrated subjects, such as nature, spirituality, and the human soul. Her passages flow with vitality across the pages, encouraging and comforting the reader. Iourenkova’s poems reinterpret difficult periods of a person’s life, including depression and the dissolution of relationships, to inspire and comfort readers. By no longer perceiving these stages of life as failures or shortcomings, a reader can now comprehend these experiences as brief, influential stretches meant to grow the individual.

The poems of Back to Myself or My Way Towards Happiness tenderly describe Iourenkova’s experiences to reassure the reader that everyone goes through difficult moments and must choose how to handle those situations. For Iourenkova, a healthy relationship with oneself prevails as the key solution; however, throughout the book, she encourages the reader to identify his or her own path to satisfaction. Through embellished metaphors, pastoral analogies, and relatable trials, Iourenkova invites the reader to seek his or her own gratification in order to achieve individual peace of mind. Her words will resonate with younger readers early in adulthood, as well as older readers taking stock of life. With several of the poems translated from French or Russian, Iourenkova develops a body of work that seems to transcend the expectations and limitations of gender, nationality, and office.

Iourenkova’s Back to Myself or My Way Towards Happiness will leave readers with a sense of understanding and fulfillment through enduring ornate descriptions and stunning imagery that dance harmoniously across one’s mind.

Reviewed By Jessica Tingling

What language could capture the elegance and the rapture of the soul in contemplation of its beauty, its moments of ecstatic joy and lonesome languor but simplicity? Back to Myself: Or My Way towards Happiness by Anna Iourenkova is a charming collection of poems that will delight many lovers of meaningful verses. In this collection, the poet offers humankind a treasure of her moments of contemplation of life and happiness, it’s a poetry that candidly celebrates the beauty and pain, the triumphs and failures of life, and it is evocative of the different seasons of the human soul in quest of happiness. As one reads Iourenkova, one gets the feeling that one was seeking sense in the very different moments and emotions that flood the human spirit.

Back to Myself: Or My Way towards Happiness features poems in a wide range of themes, including the essence of humanity, loneliness, creative solitude, communion, finding meaning in pain, heaven, nature, and a lot more. The language, though simple, is lyrical, and at times, it flows with an unusual burst of insight and wisdom. In “A Hug Can Save,” for instance, the poet captures the beauty of communion when she points out how painful solitude can be: “When no one sees them, / they can cry. / When no one hears them, / they blame the skies.” The acute melancholy of some of the lines will be a welcome delight to those who love Tennyson’s “In Memoriam.”

Some of the poems are short and deceptively simple, but they are packed with a rare intensity of emotions and love. The imagery is vivid and reminiscent of the overall context within which the poems are written. This collection will undoubtedly appeal to a wide audience, especially those looking for interesting poetry to read.

Reviewed By Romuald Dzemo

“In a world imposed by our society,
breathing on you with its anxiety,
I choose my own space,
pushing its limits, I take my place.”

"Anna Iourenkova has certainly taken her place in the world of contemporary poetry. Through these poems, we follow her on her journey towards happiness and self-enlightenment. Guided by nature and the Universe, Iourenkova writes about her own personal experiences, how she got through them, and what she has learned from them. From her darkest hour to a mindful awakening, she adeptly turns her words and thoughts into stunning images and beautiful metaphors. Iourenkova’s poetic musings on nature, healing, travel, the Universe, relationships, women and society share a keen insight on the many ways in which the world works. The way she paints and depicts life on her canvas will certainly serve as an inspiration to all those who read it."

Danica Hawkins

"...Life's geyser floods from every side.
Its measures are immeasurable by any bite.
The worth's ersatz escapes, empty, from my sight.
But everything breathes with a meaning outright.

A veil fails to stay on my eyes,
awakes my soul that civilizations can't chastise.
Any darkness melts in a bright light.
The world's beauty opens in its greatness day and night..."

"...Existence's sea now is shallow to me.
I will swim across to my coast with glee,
where my sun rises every day for me,
dissipating nightmare's mist with its bright security.

I will stay alive despite any doubt and fright.
What could scare me more that an empty life ?
Instead of following passively a flow, lost in veil,
with my mind's wind I'll direct my life's sails..."

"...Later in enchanting eyes we dive deep down,
in genuine love happily we drown,
where a divine violin of soul is calling,
we pray to never stop this falling..."

"..My chakras' flowers blossom
in a fluctuating air.
Drops of rupture's dew sliding, awesome,
on the silk of petals glare..."

"...In sanctimony's world Soul is your shield and sword.
It's able to cut false anxiety's burden's cord.
Soul is this ideal
that you searched for in people's eyes, it's real.

Soul is an oasis of abundance in the desert of need.
Soul is a candle burning in the darkness of greed.
Soul is a gate to the country of unconditional love and bliss.
Soul is a pure reflection among crooked mirrors abyss..."

«Spring envelops me with jasmine flavor
throwing winter out of my heart.
Once again giving me its favor,
wakes me up with its romantic dart.

Nature everywhere makes its revolution
freeing itself from squeezing frames.
Shoots conquer a new space in their evolution.
A necessary change that nature claims.

All grows up all around,
full of new energy, erects.
The air is pierced by beauty’s sound,
to the renewal’s flow intuitively all connects.

Blossoming flowers open their buds so proud,
shouting inaudibly a hymn of life,
without caring to be or not to be allowed,
enjoy themselves by being so alive….»

«...I'm diving where the on shore's reality
is a myth,
a space of silence and neutrality
making meaningless all earthling grief.

Separated by the surface contrary worlds coexist.
Without any chance of being reminisced,
one has no sense for the other, forced to desist.
Nothing is absolute. This is the gist.

My heart is slowing down,
I'm diving where time doesn't exist,
where nothing frowns,
a civilization is a mist.

I'm listening to a vibration of the Universe.
My head becomes a container for its coming verse.
A creative flow starts falling drop by drop
increasing slowly, the words flop.

These waving threads are weaving in the space.
I freeze, attentive and instinctive, in my chase
to form with grace a fine lace
from all this flow that I embrace.

I am a panther inhaling a game's smell
in foretaste's anticipation, not without an inner yell.
I'm capturing floating ideas that my soul spells
with my awakened brain's hungry cells.