Secrets of the Heart: Poems and Meditations by Kahlil Gibran

Secrets of the Heart: Poems and Meditations by Kahlil Gibran
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Allegories and poems about philosophy and religion. They vary in quality and interest. Mostly I liked the misanthropic hermit at the beginning. He's like a jerky Buddhist. I also liked "John the Madman" about the difference between real Christianity and false Christianity. There's a story about saving Satan and mermaids judging mankind. A lot of the mostly Christian philosophy (but also Muslim and Buddhist philosophy) resonated with me, but I didn't feel like I gained any new insights.

View all my reviews

The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe

The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I decided to read this because my funny and wise husband posted this tweet on Monday: "The external world could take care of itself... It was towards the close of the fifth or sixth month of his seclusion, and while the pestilence raged most furiously abroad, that the Prince Prospero entertained his thousand friends.” 

This is the perfect short story to read right now though it may not currently have its intended emotional effect.

The whole story is available for free here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1064

View all my reviews

Superstition Freeway by Miles Waggener

Superstition Freeway by Miles Waggener
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Forlornness as breathtaking desert scenery.

View all my reviews

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a very good coming-of-age YA in a poetic prose style. The scene with her mother at the end, this was so my mother, minus the religion.

View all my reviews

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A series of poems that form the author's memoir. Very cleverly constructed and beautiful, sad, and moving in many parts. Might be kind of confusing for kids, who appear to be the intended audience, but it would work if a parent read it with them and explained all the background history.

View all my reviews

Meet Me at the Happy Bar by Steve Langan

Meet Me at the Happy Bar by Steve Langan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

These poems possess great exactitude about the human condition and also a fair dose of dark humor. These quotes are pretty arbitrary as I found amazing lines throughout, but here are some of the ones I read last and so remembered best when I was writing this:

"You just have to believe in the suffering
of others; it's really the only way
some of us can go out into the new day."
- History of a Town

"Hurling our pain from the sidewalk into windows left open."
- Notes on Landscape

And a little bit of darkish humor I couldn't resist sharing:
"These are my (wink) deranged friends.

If I promise they won't steal anything,
do you mind if they smoke in your house?

Now don't steal anything."
- Meditation on the Campsite and the Pier

Now go read the collection so I don't end up quoting the whole thing.


View all my reviews

If They Come for Us by Fatimah Asghar

If They Come for Us by Fatimah Asghar
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There's a lot about the partition of India and Pakistan in this poetry collection, which is really interesting, but what resonated with me the most is Asghar's grief at losing her parents and her loneliness and feelings of otherness. Her poetry is brave and raw.

View all my reviews

Errata by Lisa Fay Coutley

Errata by Lisa Fay Coutley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Poetry is so hard to write about, especially, when, like me, you don't read enough poetry. These poems feel very geological but the terrain is all feelings and memories. The poems are dark, but the terrain is bright. There is a languid feeling about the poems, but the terrain is urgent with extremes of cold and heat. After reading through the collection I felt hollowed out, not in a depressed way, but in the satisfied way I imagine Pinocchio felt after Geppetto made him.

*Lisa Fay Coutley teaches at the University of Nebraska at Omaha Writer’s Workshop.

View all my reviews

Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire

Flowers of Evil: A Selection by Charles Baudelaire
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I like how Baudelaire's dark pessimism exists in perfect harmony with his romantic heart. I find that to be very realistic and moving.

View all my reviews

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There are lots of really beautiful parts to this. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

“You have been told that, even like a chain, you are as weak as your weakest link.
This is but half the truth.
You are also as strong as your strongest link.
To measure you by your smallest deed is to reckon the power of the ocean
by the frailty of its foam.
To judge you by your failures is to cast blame upon the seasons for their inconstancy.”
― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

View all my reviews

Mass for Shut-Ins by Todd Robinson

Mass for Shut-Ins by Todd Robinson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Love poems, recovery poems, personal reflections, familial relationships, and Nebraskan scenes that make you feel and see more clearly.

View all my reviews

Loving vs. Virginia by Patricia Hruby Powell

Loving vs. Virginia: A Documentary Novel of the Landmark Civil Rights Case by Patricia Hruby Powell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'm not a huge fan of historical fiction that focuses on actual historical people- such as the Lovings were, because I get frustrated trying to figure out which parts are based in fact and which are pure invention. This was short and fairly well done though, and worth it for me.

View all my reviews

This Bright Darkness by Sarah McKinstry-Brown

This Bright Darkness by Sarah McKinstry-Brown
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is really different because the poems follow a narrative about Persephone and her mother Demeter. I love mythology and this reminded me of the feeling of reading the epic poetry Odyssey, but at the same time, experiencing certain modern thinking underneath.

View all my reviews

The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám by Omar Khayyám

The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám by Omar Khayyám
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have a beautiful copy of this book with Edward FitzGerald's first and fifth edition and beautiful illustrations. I liked the irreverent poems especially the ones about wine. I liked some of the poems skeptical of religion - one even seemed to reference a sort of Buddhist conception of a lack of self - but they got a little tired after a while. FitzGerald's translation rhymes but I would have gladly sacrificed that for more ease in reading. My eyes kept glazing over and I had to read some of the poems repeatedly.

Favorite, #37 in the first edition:
Ah, fill the Cup:-- what boots it to repeat
How Time is underneath our Feet:
Unborn To-Morrow, and dead Yesterday.
Why fret about them if To-day be sweet!

View all my reviews

Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur

Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Feels like the bad parts of being in my 20s again.

View all my reviews

20 Poemas de Amor y Una Canción Desesperada by Pablo Neruda

20 poemas de amor y una canción desesperada by Pablo Neruda
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this in Spanish, and I generally enjoy Neruda much more in Spanish. The problem here is that good poetry in Spanish is very difficult for me, and I might be missing something significant here. Ideally, I'd read this in both Spanish in English, so I'm off to find an English copy.


Current favorite line, Poema 14:
"Quiero hacer contigo
lo que la primavera hace con los cerezos."

As an aside, he really loves the word "crepúsculo" which mean twilight in English. Crepúsculo crepúsculo crepúsculo.

Here's an online copy of the poems in Spanish if anyone is curious: https://www.poemas-del-alma.com/20-poemas-de-amor.htm.

View all my reviews

Love Poems by Pablo Neruda

Love Poems by Pablo Neruda
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read this in English and in Spanish, and I wasn't crazy about this collection. I thought the poems were just a little better in Spanish. I especially liked the laughter poems in Spanish better. I find the English easier to understand because I'm more comfortable with it, and the Spanish a bit more musical, but there's not a huge difference in these particular poems for me. Love is a maybe the most difficult topic for poetry, and this just left something missing for me.

View all my reviews

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is incredibly sad, dark, witty, funny, and awesome. It reminds me a little of A Christmas Carol, but it's completely its own. I also love the conceit of the poetic form to the dribble of the ball on the court or in the small space of an elevator.

View all my reviews

Adultolescence by Gabbie Hanna

Adultolescence by Gabbie Hanna
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

What is going on here? Is this supposed to be Shel Silverstein for confused and sad college students? Maybe I've been caught off guard because I didn't know the author is a YouTube personality in advance? (I mostly only ever look at BookTube, live news feeds, or late night comedy on YouTube.)

Some of the poems have value as a humorous or silly way to describe the confusion of your 20s or the millennial experience. Even these seem pretty unpolished. Who is the audience for self-deprecating silly poems? Then all of the sudden there are "serious" unhumourous poems. In many of these, Hanna overshoots a lot. Here's just one example, the poem about divorce-- missed the mark by a lot. Probably would have been better to work on a smaller number of good poems rather than 170-something quickly written poems.


View all my reviews

Lunch Poems by Frank O'Hara

Lunch Poems by Frank O'Hara
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

There were lots of parts I loved, but more that I struggled with. I suspect that part of my problem is that I don't read enough poetry yet, so I'll keep trying and hopefully revisit this one later.

Here are my favorite bits:

From "Adieu to Norman, Bon Jour to Joan and Jean-Paul," p. 35:
“the only thing to do is simply continue
is that simple
yes, it is simple because it is the only thing to do
can you do it
yes, you can because it is the only thing to do”

From "Steps," p.58:
“oh god it’s wonderful
to get out of bed
and drink too much coffee
and smoke too many cigarettes
and love you so much”

View all my reviews