Two Books of Poetry
Let's All Die Happy - Erin Adair-Hodges
Marvels of the Invisible - Jenny Molberg
Some books, from the first words, open up to you as if you could crawl inside and live in them. And you want to and you already know that you'll keep coming back, hoping that this time you'll be allowed to stay.
If a year ago someone had told me that I would feel that way about two books of poetry I would not have believed them. A love of poetry is new to me (and entirely due to Kara, to give credit where credit is due) and I'm still not sure what to do with this love. I read poetry and dream of where I would tattoo my favorite lines so I can keep them with me forever. I read poetry and don't give up the moment something takes a moment of thought to understand. I read poetry because I want to and not because it was assigned for a class.
But even with this new love, how I feel about the works of Erin and Jenny is unique. Maybe I feel this way because I've met the authors and heard them read pieces of these books. Maybe I feel this way because I've learned more about poetry in the past few months than I had in my entire life before. Maybe I feel this way because I should be working on my poetry final and I can justify reading poetry as a reasonable procrastination. I don't know. But I just sat down and read two beautiful books of poetry and they made me cry (though I have to admit that basically all books make me cry at some point).
It has been months since I sat down and wanted to read an entire book, since I sat down to read and didn't get bored of the story. I've been in a book slump that I justified by being busy with school and having too many podcasts I needed to listen to and having a thesis to finish. Tonight I finally gave up on reading the books I had already started and went to something else from my oversized pile of books I own but have not read. Hopefully this marks the end of my slump and I will post here more often, but who knows.
I will not try to summarize these books as poetry does not do well with summary. What the writers meant will be different from what I understood which will be different from what you understood and that is how it should be. But I would recommend you read them because they are beautiful and I love them and these amazing poets deserve all of our support. I can't wait for their future books to be published so I can love them too.
Maybe this doesn't count as a book review. Maybe this is more about me. And maybe that will be true of all of these blog posts as I continue. I'm trying not to worry about it too much.
XO, Ellen
P.S. Books where the text is slightly raised from the page deserve a special kind of love.
Marvels of the Invisible - Jenny Molberg
Some books, from the first words, open up to you as if you could crawl inside and live in them. And you want to and you already know that you'll keep coming back, hoping that this time you'll be allowed to stay.
If a year ago someone had told me that I would feel that way about two books of poetry I would not have believed them. A love of poetry is new to me (and entirely due to Kara, to give credit where credit is due) and I'm still not sure what to do with this love. I read poetry and dream of where I would tattoo my favorite lines so I can keep them with me forever. I read poetry and don't give up the moment something takes a moment of thought to understand. I read poetry because I want to and not because it was assigned for a class.
But even with this new love, how I feel about the works of Erin and Jenny is unique. Maybe I feel this way because I've met the authors and heard them read pieces of these books. Maybe I feel this way because I've learned more about poetry in the past few months than I had in my entire life before. Maybe I feel this way because I should be working on my poetry final and I can justify reading poetry as a reasonable procrastination. I don't know. But I just sat down and read two beautiful books of poetry and they made me cry (though I have to admit that basically all books make me cry at some point).
It has been months since I sat down and wanted to read an entire book, since I sat down to read and didn't get bored of the story. I've been in a book slump that I justified by being busy with school and having too many podcasts I needed to listen to and having a thesis to finish. Tonight I finally gave up on reading the books I had already started and went to something else from my oversized pile of books I own but have not read. Hopefully this marks the end of my slump and I will post here more often, but who knows.
I will not try to summarize these books as poetry does not do well with summary. What the writers meant will be different from what I understood which will be different from what you understood and that is how it should be. But I would recommend you read them because they are beautiful and I love them and these amazing poets deserve all of our support. I can't wait for their future books to be published so I can love them too.
Maybe this doesn't count as a book review. Maybe this is more about me. And maybe that will be true of all of these blog posts as I continue. I'm trying not to worry about it too much.
XO, Ellen
P.S. Books where the text is slightly raised from the page deserve a special kind of love.
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