“She Felt Like Feeling Nothing”

“She Felt Like Feeling Nothing”

Written by R.H. Sin

Reviewed by Diana Iozzia

 

A favorite romance poet of mine is R.H. Sin, who writes on bad relationships, self-worth, mental health, abuse, alcoholism, friendships, and raising children. This prolific writer has created many poetry collections so far, writing hundreds of poems for each book. His poetry feels genuine, as if he just speaking to you from the heart while you’re having a cup of coffee together. Sin’s work is just so impressive to me, and I perfectly plan to own all of his collections.

 

She Felt Like Feeling Nothing specifically hones in on female emotion before a relationship, during, and after. I appreciate how Sin creates poems that encourage his readers to strive to be their best and to wish to be treated well. He also seems to write more wisely and more about the real world as he grows older, his poems becoming more realistic and less dream-like. The collection is split into some sections, such as the Scenes and the Hymns, with other poems spaced in intermittently.

 

The poems I enjoyed most from this collection are:

Scenes: “Two, Three, Twelve, Fourteen, Twenty-Six, Twenty-Nine, Thirty, Thirty-Two, and Thirty-Five”

Hymn: “Four, Seven, Nine, Twelve, Seventeen, Twenty-Two”

“My Life After You”

“I Blame the Movies”

“22 Minutes Beyond Midnight”

“Broken Fuse”

 

I rate this collection at 5 out of 5 stars for the content, the poems I enjoyed, and the themes. This is one of the stronger collections in his repertoire.

"How to Be a Poet"

"How to Be a Poet"
Written by J.M. Farkas
Reviewed by Diana Iozzia

"How to Be a Poet" is the second book written by J.M. Farkas, in the style of black-out, or in this case, white-out poetry. Farkas draws from Ovid's poem, "Ars Amatoria", an epic poem about love.

Farkas uses seven bottles of white correction fluid to mark out about 90 percent of the poem, leaving words out that help make a cohesive poem for herself. Her encompassing poem sets out to teach the reader how to be a poet, using the secluded words to create metaphors and personification.

Personally, this is not a type of poetry that I had delved into before. In reading the pages and thinking how many of Ovid's words had been manipulated, I found myself drawing a dislike for this style of poetry. I think using someone else's poetry in this way is a bit cheap. Although her final poem reads nicely in a style of poetry I would read, I do not like the entire poetry style.

The second half of the book is Ovid's original poem, but Farkas's poem's words typed in a bold font. I personally did not enjoy this section, because I do not enjoy Ovid's poetry. I felt that this book used a certain level of effort that just does not appeal to me. I feel that the creation of this book feels disengenious, taking advantage of the source material.

I would not recommend reading this book. I do not plan to continue reading Farkas's work.

I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for reading and reviewing purposes. Thank you to Andrews McMeel Publishing for the opportunity.

“The Mermaid’s Voice Returns in This One”

“The Mermaid’s Voice Returns in This One”

Written by Amanda Lovelace

Review written by Diana Iozzia

After reading the first two poetry collections in this series, I wanted to continue to read the third one. Amanda Lovelace is a strongly-opinionated, feministic personality, whose beliefs and actions are clearly reflected in her female-empowering poetry. I enjoyed both of her first two books, but I did not love them. Some of the poems were a little too much for me, in a political way or a preaching way. I am not the type of person who needs to be empowered as a woman, but I can still appreciate it.

In each of her poetry collections, along with the theme of feminism, there is a specific type of magical theme. Her first was related to princesses and royalty. Her second was related to witches. This third one is related to mermaids and other magical creatures. All of her poetry collections are very raw, honest, and at times, uncomfortable to read. Her books have many trigger warnings at the beginning before the introduction. Please keep that in mind if you are someone who feels upset or hurt by sensitive material.

Here are the poems I enjoyed:

“Ariel”

“No One Noticed & She Liked it That Way”

“It Was Always the Girl Through the Looking Glass”

“Wild”

“Now I Know You Can’t Fix Someone Else”

“What Wouldn’t I Do for You?”

“Titanic”

“This Cannot Go On”

“Flight” *

“Kill the Conductor” *

“Mother Knows Best II”

“The Good Kind of Drowning”

“I Don’t Mind Standing If I’m Standing Next to You” *

"The Likes of Us"

“The Likes of Us”

Written by Michael Gottlieb

Review written by Diana Iozzia

 

“The Likes of Us” is a very complex and verbose collection of poetry written by Michael Gottlieb. Unfortunately, the vocabulary is much stronger and harder to understand. I felt myself unable to understand any poetry fully, since many of them are created with sentence fragments, allusions, idioms, and difficult vocabulary. I felt that each poem had a certain awkward, frazzled disorganization that I could just not grasp a hold of. It also didn’t help me that every poem felt like it all belonged in one epic, which still did not provide enough clarity.

I remembered as I began to learn, I was taught to read a page and if I could not understand at least five words, I was told to choose a different book instead. I always chose to read it anyway, however, this book was far too tough for me. This poetry collection is clearly for someone else. I personally understand William Shakespeare’s classic literature more than I understand this.

The poems I (think I) enjoyed are:

“A Rout-in-Waiting”

“Untroubled by Rest”

“Early + Late”

“A Kind of Waiting Room”

Sadly, I do not recommend this collection of poetry. I plan to pass on my copy.

"Milk and Honey"

“Milk and Honey”

Written by Rupi Kaur

Review written by Diana Iozzia

As I considered reading “Milk and Honey” by Rupi Kaur, I considered what I had previously heard about her poetry. I had heard it was about romance and sex, but it also spoke about the harsher sides of both. As I began reading, I was a bit off-put by the poems about sex, but I realized that the cruder poems are just not for me. However, there were many poems that struck a chord, especially the poems about family, young love, and domestic abuse. I couldn’t relate to the harsher poems, but I felt they were important to read. I imagine that someone who is in a dark place could find this book and truly find an outlet or a place to heal. Even so, I imagine some of the poems could possibly make someone feel a bit reminded of harsher topics, especially for those who have survived different forms of abuse. Separated into sections, such as “The Hurting”, “The Loving”, “The Breaking”, “The Healing”, allows for every reader to find a poem that’s great for them.

One of my favorite aspects of Rupi Kaur’s writing is her ability to create unique but familiar metaphors and similes. Including metaphors about dragons, mermaids, cities, flowers, music, and more are not exclusive, but I felt that Kaur creates these forms of literature in very refreshing ways. Her writing exemplifies what I look for in modern poetry. Another thing that I noticed about Rupi Kaur’s verses that stuck out to me were the way she could turn something beautiful into something so terrible, in a mere sentence or two. This is something that I have considered to be “sweet and sour” poetry.

The poems I enjoyed most will have an asterisk next to them. These are all of the poems I enjoyed. Unfortunately, most poems do not have titles, so I will list the page numbers of those without titles. The majority of the poems were very strong in theme and nature but were very interesting and wise.

pg 14, pg 18 pg 19- “To Fathers with Daughters” * pg 21*, pg 46- “I Will Have to Wait ‘til I’m a Mother”, pg 48, pg 50, pg 51, pg 53-“The Perfect Date”, pg 59 * pg 60, pg 72- “You”, pg 75- “Solo Performance”, pg 76-77- “Howe We Make Up”, pg 84, pg 85, pg 89 *, pg 92, pg 95, pg 99- “If You Want to Know What Kind of Man He Is”, pg 100, pg 104, pg 114, pg 115, pg 117- “The Difference”, pg 121, pg 122, pg 123- “Us”, pg 128 *, pg 136- “When You Ask if We Can Still Be Friends”, pg 137, pg 158- “To The Reader”, pg 167, pg 173, pg 175, pg 178

“You, Me, The Sun, and the Stars”

“You, Me, The Sun, and the Stars”

Written by G.P. Loehr

Review written by Diana Iozzia

            “You, Me, The Sun, and the Stars” is a poetry collection, with many poems centering around love, heartbreak, and faith. This book grants a cute, Southern American charm, if that was intended or not. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, through the perspective of the author. Loehr speaks of many emotions in a very natural and believable way. The reader can imagine the emotional experience he has been through and sympathize, relating in their own ways to their own loves. For instance, I related to quite a few of his poems surrounding long-distance love, because I myself am in a long-distance engagement. I felt very at peace reading Loehr’s books. I can imagine reading this on a nice, wooden porch with a glass of something cold and sweet.

            To continue, I enjoyed that many of Loehr’s poems have similar themes. Certain colors, days, times, and themes of nature are present throughout the book. The most noticeable recurring theme is the one of nature: the sun, the moon, the stars, the universe, day, night. I understand why he has titled the book after these. I often enjoy a theme in a poetry book’s organization. They feel more cohesive and as if you are experiencing the journey with the poet.

            I enjoyed many poems of his. I would like to share the titles with you:

“Tomorrow, We’ll Be Together”                           “These Summer Nights”

“The Foxtrot”                                                           “A Dream That You Inspired”

“Sunburst”                                                                “Shooting Stars”

“Atlas”                                                                       “Lullabies”

“Cycles”                                                                     “The Summer Rains”

            “Foxtrot” was my absolute favorite.

Courtesy of Olympia Publishing, I received a complimentary copy of this book for reading and reviewing purposes.

"I Wrote"

“I Wrote”

Written by Alice Bogen

Review written by Diana Iozzia

 The experience of reading “I Wrote” was absolutely wonderful. “I Wrote” was written by a seventeen-year-old poet. Jeez. Way to make the rest of us look unaccomplished! Alice Bogen’s poetry reflects a certain wisdom she has learned so far. Her writing also reflects a deep maturity and understand of her experience in the world. Her poetry is a large mix of different emotions, tales, and times in her life.

Her poems can be a bit sad or startling, but they have a genuine hope to them, which I find refreshing. There are many beautiful metaphors to nature, but they come across very realistic. Often, we find metaphors that just have sprinkles of random things thrown in. People are turtles, in the slow movements they make. He was the ocean after a storm. It can be a bit like Mad Libs, sometimes. However, Alice’s metaphors, similes, and other comparisons are very simplistic and believable.

To continue, an interesting technique that Bogen has implemented into her book is using general abstract themes or emotions like bravery, fame, happiness, youth, beauty and more. She creates original poems that are more than just their titles with a spin.

I enjoyed a multitude of poems in this book. They are:

 “I Wrote”                              “Happiness”                          “They”           

“Last May”                           “Youth”                                  “Beauty”

“Bravery”                              “Last Huge Breath”            “Life Shall Be Lived”

“Sacrifice”                             “Seen”                                    “The World is Not Enough”

“To Her”                                “Wings”                                 “To Leo”

“Acceptance”                        “Ears Don’t Lie”                  “Lion”

“Brother”                               “To M 2”                                “Goodbye”

“Consequences”                   “Sinners”                               “The Devil”

Courtesy of Olympia Publishing, I received a complimentary copy of this book for reading and reviewing purposes.