Genre: Poetry
Published: October 26, 2018 by: Secret Midnight Press
Pages: 216
Rating: 4/5 stars
In this poetry collection, Lee Martens explores themes of love, heartbreak, mental health and healing. Using poems of varying lengths, Martens uses her past experiences of journeying into adulthood to guide the reader along a path of healing after a heartbreak. Her poems each tell a different journey, but all stem from the same goal: sometimes when you have a broken heart, you need to learn to pick up the pieces and heal yourself.
I'll be honest, I don't read a lot of poetry. I will pretty much always pick up the standard book over a poetry collection in a book store. I think I've also harboured some resentment towards it in the past because I have never been able to write it myself haha! However, I usually find that when I do read it, it is extremely easy to get through and easy to get lost in. That is exactly what I found with this collection.
I loved the themes in this collection, as sometimes the meanings in poetry can go straight over my head and I don't understand them. However, these poems had a sort of simplicity to them, they didn't try too hard to be overly metaphorical, instead, they spoke for themselves. And I thought that was beautiful.
I had a special appreciation for the poem, "Unrealistic Television." As an avid watcher of dating shows, particularly The Bachelor, that one really stuck with me. I also liked the poems that dealt with some sort of holiday or special event, such as "Valentine's Day," and "I Wrote this On my Birthday." I felt as if those poems really gave me the sense that the collection was moving me through a passage of time, almost a year in the life, and it was really cool.
I wasn't able to give this collection a perfect review, and that's just simply because of personal preference. Like I mentioned before, I tend to prefer regular books over poetry collections, so I don't think that poetry will ever really resonate with me as much as the average book does. That being said, I'm still really happy I gave this book a shot, and I think that if you are a regular poetry reader, it is worth checking this one out!
Emily @ Paperback Princess
I appreciate the honesty. I've never been able to get into modern poetry, except in childish stuff such as Shel Silverstein and the like, so I'm always interested to hear if there is something that a person who isn't a huge poetry fan might like. I really like a lot of the work of the Romantics, so I sort of wish I actually liked modern poetry!
ReplyDeleteThere’s nothing wrong with Shel Silverstein! My cousin used to have his book, Where the Sidewalk Ends, and we loved it! I think his poems are light hearted and fun :)
DeletePoetry is always down to personal preference to an extant - glad you enjoyed this though! :)
ReplyDeleteIt really is!
DeleteI never know how to review books with short stories or poetry. But this is a great review! Glad to hear it was good.
ReplyDeleteAsh @ JennRenee Read
Not much of a poetry person myself. I do enjoy the random one every now and then, buuut I wouldn't pick a whole book on my own accord lol xD I think I'm just not patient enough? I'm glad you seem to have enjoyed this mostly, though! Great review!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I definitely don't normally pick up poetry books in the bookstore. Thanks Ruzaika!
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