I don’t read a lot of poetry, to be exact I think I’ve read 5 poetry collections in recent years. But I do really enjoy them every now and then. Especially these what I believe to be more modern poetry collections draw my attention. I’m not one to analyze poems, so I like to understand them right away. This definitely is something that factors into my enjoyment of a poetry collection. For today I wanted to talk about two poetry collections, but do keep in mind I’m pretty much a newbie in this genre. 

the mermaid’s voice returns in this one – amanda lovelace

I read and really enjoyed Amanda Lovelace’s first two poetry collections. While I hardly ever read poetry, these collections really spoke to me. I know these might not be for more ‘classical’ poetry lovers but I think these types of poetry can open up the genre to a whole new audience. And with topics like the one’s Amanda is discussing I think these are so important to young people.

I liked the different types of formatting we got in this third collection. This was a bit different compared to the first one, as I only listened to the second one as an audiobook I’m not sure how the formatting was there. Here we not only get the ‘enter after a couple of words’ format, but also one where the whole poem is written like a paragraph without any enters.

In the last part of this collection there are some poems by other people included. The font for these is a bit different so you can easily tell which ones aren’t by Amanda. Unfortunately I wasn’t as interested in most of these, I think there were two I really loved but the others weren’t really for me. I do like what the author tried to do there.

While reading the mermaid’s voice returns in this one I am once again amazed at me not liking Rupi Kaur’s work as I think most people will either like or dislike both authors. They have a similar poetry style, but while I find Amanda’s work so heartfelt and it really resonates with me, I just don’t click with Rupi’s work. Or at least not when I listened to Milk and Honey (did I see a little reference to that in one of the poems here? or was that just me haha?), I might give her work another shot after once again enjoying this one.

I also just had to share one poem, because it brings together a heartbreaking message and my greatest fandom <3

when i tell you i’m still waiting for my hogwarts letter, what i mean to say is i never meant to be here for so long.
-forever wandering lost & wandless.

Nocturnal – Wilder Poetry

I first came across Wilder Poetry through Instagram, I follow and love Atticus and was pointed towards Wilder. So when I saw Nocturnal on Netgalley in the read now section, I had to get it right away. And I’m very happy I did just that! While this is what I would call modern poetry, it’s also different from Amanda Lovelace and Rupi Kaur, the only other two authors I’ve read poetry from. Coincidentally all of these poetry collections are by women, and that makes me very happy.

Like I said, Nocturnal is different from other poetry collections I have read, and that’s almost completely because of the design. The design of this book is to die for. It’s so gorgeous, I could look at it forever. I actually took a bunch of screenshots, so I could do just that haha.

There wasn’t really a theme or story throughout the whole collection, or at least not an obvious one. Therefor I wasn’t compelled to keep on reading, but instead had to take breaks after reading a couple of poems. I also read a couple of the poems again, and realized I understood them better. For me, this collection felt less ‘easy’ so to see, but still very accessible and with some amazing poems.

I really liked the focus on nature and the parallels that were being drawn. There were also themes of love, loss and self-care. All very important topics in my opinion. I could really relate to some of the poems and I think that definitely ensures higher enjoyment with poetry collections.

This poetry collection is one you definitely want to own, my eARC will disappear in the next couple of days and I’m already sorry for that. I want to keep on looking at these gorgeous designs, and read these poems again. If you’re like me, and don’t read a lot of poetry, I would definitely recommend this poetry collection!