Show Us Your Books: Poetry Collections

Posted May 8, 2018 by shooting in Book Review / 18 Comments

I’m late, I’m late, for a very important date! Alas, here I am for Show Us Your Books with Jana and Steph. April was National Poetry Month so I read a lot of poetry collections and I thought I’d share some here.

Show Us Your Books: Mini reviews of poetry collections (incl. Rupi Kaur and Bo Burnham). #ontheblog Click To Tweet

Poisoned Apples: Poems for You, My Pretty by Christine Heppermann

Source: library e-copy; all opinions are my own

Official Summary (add to Goodreads): In fifty poems Christine Heppermann places fairy tales side by side with the modern teenage girl. Powerful and provocative, deadly funny and deadly serious, this collection is one to read, to share, to treasure, and to come back to again and again.

Review: I came across this poetry collection in my local e-library and I was immediately intrigued. Poems about being a teen today but told through the lens of fairy tales? Sign me up! This is a quick read, as most poetry books are, but you can always settle down and really think about many of these poems. What I really love about many of these poems is that it allows you to see these classic fairy tales in a new light. Most of us know that the original stories are dark, but these days, we tend to think of them in light of Disney movies. Heppermann completely flips that idea, and I loved it. The book is also full of photography that just enhances the book’s poems and messages. My one complaint is that not all the poems relate to fairy tales, but the majority of them do, so it’s not too big of an issue.

Poetry Will Save Your Life: A Memoir by Jill Bialosky

Source: library copy; all opinions are my own

Official Summary (add to Goodreads): For Jill Bialosky, certain poems stand out like signposts along her life’s journey. These poems have contributed to her growth as a person, writer, poet, and thinker. Now, take this journey with Bialosky as she introduces you to each of these life-changing poems, recalling when she encountered each one, and how its importance and meaning to her has evolved over time.

Review: I was at the library one weekend and I happened to come across this new release. I knew I wanted to read a lot of poetry books for National Poetry Month, so this memoir really stuck out to me. Jill has always loved poems – she even writes and publishes her own – but this book is essentially essays about moments in Jill’s life and the poem or poems that she could relate to, or that she could understand better now that she had gone through a particular situation. She talks about losing her dad as a young kid, her mom getting married again, falling in and out of love, losing children, having children, suicide, grief, and so much more. Even if you can’t specifically relate to everything that Jill has experienced, I think you’ll find something that you can understand. Also, I enjoyed the various poems Jill included- some I knew, many I was discovering for the first time.

One poem that was included, that I had already read in the past, was “Richard Cory” by Edwin Arlington Robinson. I suggest reading this poem because it’s easy to understand very powerful. It’s essentially the idea that you can look at someone and think they have it all, but you aren’t always aware of how they feel on the inside. You can find the poem here.

Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur

Source: personal copy; all opinions are my own

Official Summary (add to Goodreads): milk and honey is a collection of poetry and prose about survival. It is about the experience of violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity. It is split into four chapters, and each chapter serves a different purpose, deals with a different pain, heals a different heartache. milk and honey takes readers through a journey of the most bitter moments in life and finds sweetness in them because there is sweetness everywhere if you are just willing to look.

Review: I have to admit this wasn’t my most favorite poetry collection. I found a lot of the poems to be too short for my liking, sometimes only two or four lines. I do appreciate all these new, modern day poets coming out though, because they are showing that poetry isn’t just Shakespeare or even Emily Dickinson. Despite milk and honey not being my favorite, I did find some of the poems to be really good, and I do recommend checking it out if you’re curious. I’d be happy to read more by Kaur in the future, to see how she’s grown and what topics she’s now tackling. I do want to note that a lot of Kaur’s poems in this book focus on tough topics, so be forewarned if that’s not your thing.

One poem that I really loved from the book-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Egghead: Or, You Can’t Survive on Ideas Alone by Bo Burnham

Source: personal copy; all opinions are my own

Official Summary (add to Goodreads): In EGGHEAD, Bo brings his brand of brainy, emotional comedy to the page in the form of off-kilter poems, thoughts, and more. Teaming up with his longtime friend, artist, and illustrator Chance Bone, Bo takes on everything from death to farts in this weird book that will make you think, laugh and think, “why did I just laugh?”

Review: Bo Burnham is one of my favorite comedians. I’ve been watching his Youtube videos and stand-up comedy specials for years now. I’ve even seen him live! So I finally took the time to read his poetry collection Egghead. This book is very typical Bo Burnham. If you don’t know who he is, he’s a young twenty-something who started writing/singing songs on Youtube. A lot of these are irreverent, and I like to describe him as someone who makes fun of everything and everything. If you’re offended easily, then this is not the comedian for you. Otherwise, he’s really clever, and you can tell he’s a good writer and very smart if you listen to certain songs of his.

He shares random poetry in some of his stand-up routines, so I guess it makes sense that he wrote an entire book. I didn’t love everything included – but like I said, it’s very much Bo. There are plenty of ridiculous poems, or poems that really don’t make sense, but then scattered throughout are poems that have a lot of heart and are obviously meant to be taken seriously, and I love those. I do have to say, though, that not all the illustrations in the book made a lot of sense to me. It’s not a big deal, but I figured I’d let you know!

One of the more serious, sweet poems:

18 responses to “Show Us Your Books: Poetry Collections

  1. I adore Rupi. I really want to get her book of poetry. Like on my list for sure. Even though some of her pieces are short like you say, I find so much depth and soul in her writing. She has such a gift. Love her.

  2. These poetry books sound really good, especially Milk and Honey, but Egghead sounds good too. I never think to check out poetry books, so I should!

  3. The Rupi Kaur poem you shared is excellent. I tend to have a love/hate relationship with poetry. We had to read the classics in high school but I didn’t particularly enjoy them. I tend to enjoy more modern poetry (with the exception of Rumi), even though I haven’t explored it lately, I want to now. Adding Milk and Honey and Poetry Will Save Your Life to my TBR.

  4. Milk and Honey wasn’t for me unfortunately! 🙁 but I’ll have to check it out that memoir about poetry! How interesting! Poetry can definitely change someone’s life dramatically. Maybe even save it.

  5. I rarely read poetry so I appreciate this round-up! I like the mix you have here too, I’m sure there’s at least one of these that I’d enjoy. I’m especially intrigued by the memoir!

  6. Jen

    I don’t think I have ever really sat down and read a modern poetry book, the classics yet, but you shared some poems I really liked the sound of.

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