Poetry Reviews
I'm still getting a feel for my poetry reading preferences, though I know I like to write personally with slant rhyme, near rhymes, and other wordplay devices, with elements of free verse dabbled in.
I know I read some poetry collections when I was a young kid, like Where the Sidewalk Ends probably, and of course many Dr. Suess works which have poetic meters like anapestic triameter to them, but it's been so long and my memory is so fuzzy I feel like I wouldn't be able to review them to the fullest extent of my abilities. I've also read translations of Inferno and the Odyssey in my youth but, again, that was ages ago, for school, and I barely remember how either went or what I thought of them.
I've also read individual poems from online publications, but cannot remember every poet or publication I've read.
2024
Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings
Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings by Joy Harlo, 5/5 stars.
Three-term Poet Laureate Joy Harjo's 2015 collection of poems.
This was a heavy read—so much packed into all those words, to the point that I read it over a few days instead of the one day’s time I’ve read most of my poetry collections recorded so far in. There is a rich and vibrant worldview and history in these poems, both on and under the surface. A lot of deep subject matter tackled while giving you the space to ponder and think about it. I can see why Joy Harjo’s been Poet Laureate and such so many times.
There were a good number of spots I highlighted text in, including lines like “After years you realize that your enemies are as familiar as your friends” “it was a holy mess, wholly of our own folly, drawn of ashes around the hole / of our undoing” “Let’s not shame our eyes for seeing. Instead, let’s thank them for their bravery” “Every word that’s ever said tries to find a way to live” “An enemy must be worthy of engagement” “An enemy who gets in, risks the danger of becoming a friend” “Besides, to speak everything is to exhaust mystery” among many, many others.
I also found “For a Girl Becoming” particularly rhythmic and skillful poetry with its use of repetition. I also found the language used in “Talking with the Sun” particularly rich.
A masterful collection.
Milk and Honey
Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur, 2.5/5 stars.
Rupi Kaur’s first collection of poems (she is apparently a very famous “instapoet”).
Despite everything she’s writing, her words feel like they have very little to say. The specifics do not feel specific enough. The vague-ities do not feel all encompassing enough. By the halfway point, I grew tired of her stylistic choices, confused where one poem ended and another began, and convinced her work was just barely scraping the surface of what poetry is instead of embracing the history of what poetry has been—vivid, clever, rhythmic, etc etc. The surface level feminism and breezed-over heavy subject matter also did not bring anything new to the table. It felt regurgitated right out of social media. Not sure how much of it is based in real events and how much isn't given that I don't know much about Kaur's life story. These are written confessional style either way.
The rest of her poems feel kind of pop-psychology-ridden when it comes to interpersonal connection and healing. Nothing truly new here—just everything compiled into one place, which I suppose makes it a decent entry level collection on the subjects?
Waffled on the rating, but I’m giving it a 2.5/5 because I did, at least, feel a hint of a spark of recognition when it came to her one poem about feeling only in extremes.
What Kind of Woman
What Kind of Woman by Kate Baer, 4/5 stars.
An exploration of being a woman through the trichotomy of womanhood, wifehood, and motherhood.
At first, I did tire of the stances Baer was taking and how surface level feminism they felt, but then the lines “when you stay in your lane, / better connections happen. / I know staying silent isn’t cool / but just a thought” popped up. I had a genuine, quiet switch flip moment, where like, I may not have loved the writing, but it was her space to talk about what she wanted, so I let her.
Other lines that stuck out to me had to do with the subject matter tying this whole book together—the womanhood/wifehood/motherhood trichotomy. “She might as well be nursing him. In / time she is no different from another limb.” “if, in fact, she ran.” “I had to / dream her back into a woman / back into a woman / back into a woman / again.” “I didn’t ask you to.” “When grief sits / with you, hand dipped with rage, let it / linger. Hold its pulse in your hands. There / is no remedy for a bad haircut or ruined / love like time.”
I guess perhaps you could say I enjoyed this one more than, or at least preferred this one to, her erasure poetry collection. Her dissection of being a woman/wife/mother was definitely personally derived. Never do I feel as disconnected from womanhood and the related -hoods as I do when I read works written by women so entrenched in their own gender woes like this.
Rated 4/5 stars instead of 3.5/5 stars because I figured I’d rated things I liked about this much as 4/5 stars before, and I did have some genuine connection moments with a good handful of her lines of poetry.
2023
I Hope This Finds You Well
I Hope This Finds You Well by Kate Baer, 3.5/5 stars.
Kate Baer's collection of erasure poetry.
I’ve known about erasure poetry for a while, and a few of these were indeed clever, but IDK if I truly connected to any of these. I don’t feel like I’m the intended audience, maybe. Reading the original messages made me feel dour, sour, and I didn’t always connect to how Baer repurposed some of the words, or her intent. Though I can definitely see why Baer’s popular—she’s filling that perch popular social media must love. She’s a woman of the 2020s. A modern age poet. I wonder if I’d like her more traditional, own-written poetry more, or perhaps if she’s just not for me.
Some Things I Still Can't Tell You
Some Things I Still Can't Tell You by Misha Collins, 4/5 stars.
Misha Collin's debut poetry book.
I don’t know what I expected going into a collection by Misha Collins—I feel like I really got to know his family life here, and the places where that was explored are the strongest in this collection, particularly with his wife (love poems), his mother, and his children. I had a few moments, I think mostly with his family poems, that stuck out to me. I connected and resonated with this more than I did the collection I read by Orr. Family and love are pretty universal, I suppose. I really found myself thinking about that “I wish for this” line lmao.
The Last Love Poem I'll Ever Write
The Last Love Poem I'll Ever Write by Gregory Orr, 4/5 stars.
A collection of poetry detailing a number of the author's personal experiences.
For a random book I found with no context, it was an interesting group of poems to read. His relationship to Christianity is a complex one, though the most I seem to get out of it is “the beloved”—which also seems to stand apart as a recurring concept throughout the collection. You need to read more about his life to understand some of the poems—like the beatings, if I am understanding right. And some did resonate with me, even if a lot of them fell flat or felt formulaic. His reference to his inspirations—like Emily Dickinson and Sappho and the rest—made for an interesting repeat subject as well.
Deep Wheel Orcadia
Deep Wheel Orcadia by Harry Josephine Giles, 3.5/5 stars.
A science fiction verse novel about a space station written in the Orcadian dialect of Scots with an English translation presented alongside the original Orcadian verse.
Maybe it’s just the limits of the genre, but I felt very little narrative or story from this book of narrative poetry. Perhaps that’s how narrative poetry’s supposed to be, especially in translation? But I think the choice for compounding word translations definitely hindered the book. That, and perhaps the fact that this wasn’t written chronologically if pieces of it have already appeared elsewhere…? The characters felt superficial too, and it was very easy for me to lose track of them amidst their interacting together. Almost no plot to speak of either. A read for sure. It was trying to say something but never really got around to saying it!
And for more of a look back on this bit of narrative poetry as of updating this page in 2024… maybe I am not the intended audience! Perhaps someone with a more well developed palate when it comes to narrative poetic tradition would appreciate these linked poems more? I appreciate what it was going for, anyway, as a verse novel written in Orcadian Scots.