book reviews
Reviews of the best poetry books, collections and anthologies; discover poems and up-and-coming poets across all cultures, genres and themes.
Introducing, 'Bound to the Wings of a Butterfly'
Bound to the Wings of a Butterfly is a collection of poetry, written as an act of writing therapy. It is about healing, recovery, and self-acceptance. About the journey of discovery that comes with true internal healing, and about transforming our lives, towards positivity, beauty, and love.
Zachary PhillipsPublished 2 years ago in PoetsAh Putin
Ah Putin, ya shoulda done some more computing, before ya sent your troops a shooting. Perhaps then they wouldn’t be a looting,
Zachary PhillipsPublished 2 years ago in PoetsPatrizia Garofalo and Cinzia Demi, "Tra Livorno e Genova, il poeta delle due città"
There are literary essays that enlighten, enrich, make people say: “Here, this is exactly what I thought and felt”. There are others dripping academia, for example those read on university days, when you had to waste an hour, not to study the poet or novelist in question, but just to understand what the critic meant with his nebula jumble of words. We students ended up telephoning one another, asking: “But what did you get?” We tried to reconstruct the thread of the discourse, to “translate” the text into an understandable Italian, laboriously linking the subject and the predicate. Often, in the end, once paraphrased and vulgarized, the essay could be summed up in three or four key concepts. We felt, then, the need to move away from a world made up only of people talking to themselves, and immerse ourselves in real life, in concrete things.
Patrizia PoliPublished 2 years ago in PoetsBooks for when you can’t stop thinking about your ex
I just realized that Valentine’s Day is actually one of my favorite holidays, which came as a surprise despite the demonstrated fact that I am fully addicted to love – brief, timeless, imaginary, accidental, decisive, stabilizing, elusive, contradictory love! It’s both excruciating and delicious. Between all the red and pink wrappers around heart-shaped chocolates, mass-printed notes with cartoon characters or cliché expressions of admiration, and the shelves stocked with a Romance for every reader that I’m sitting next to (at Third Place Books) I can’t help but think about all the love I’ve felt in my silly little life.
Landscape of the Soul: poems in Spanish and English
President John F. Kennedy, well-known as a patron of the arts, famously said, “When power corrupts, poetry cleanses,” adding that art humbles the arrogant by reminding them of their limitations. (For more on JFK's views on art, see HuffPost https://tinyurl.com/57d52yxw).
PK ColleranPublished 2 years ago in PoetsHow do we remember love?
It was nearing the end of the night, a couple of hours after a small coffee with a splash of cream but one and a half until smoking a joint at the bus stop, when Emmy grabbed the book from the streetsmart poetry titles in the back of the bookstore and held it up for me to see: “A Hundred Lovers,” the second collection from Richie Hofmann. It comes out today from Knopf. I hadn’t even heard of it until last week, but only because someone told me about it. Its sudden appearance in my little world excited me. I’d seen the cover online, so I wasn’t surprised by the stunning Greek marble bust of a broken male form, which I did love. The bold insistence of the book’s trumpeted announcement into my sphere and the physical presence of the newly on-sale product was what really captured my attention. I tried to resist, but I had to read it immediately.
Black Feelings
Black joy is when we are free from slavery, Black joy is when we are treated equally and not a color, Black joy is when we can go out without being scared something will happen,
Devilisa WarnerPublished 2 years ago in PoetsAquí estamos. Here we are.
Happy to be able to share with you today poems from the forthcoming book, Poems of Community and Hope, by Hipólito Orlando Sanchéz, which will be coming out in 2022, published by Cafh Foundation, Inc., New York.
PK ColleranPublished 2 years ago in PoetsReview of Grzegorz Kwiatkowski's 'Crops'
I don't often review poetry. In fact, this is the first time I've reviewed any poetry here on Vocal. But, every once in a while, words without music, or words with music entirely in the head, call.
Paul LevinsonPublished 2 years ago in Poets"Life in Review"
“Life In Reviews” She took my hand to write our story She wanted her coffers filled
Jeffrey P BaileyPublished 2 years ago in PoetsIntroducing Mohammed El-Kurd
Born in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of occupied East Jerusalem, Palestinian poet Mohammed El-Kurd rose to international fame amid this year's Israeli assault on Gaza and East Jerusalem. Although his credentials as a writer and activist have long been known to followers of Palestinian politics, his debut collection, Rifqa, introduces us for the first time to a poet of global stature.
Rebecca Ruth GouldPublished 2 years ago in PoetsSonnet - To Science and Alone
I present to you two examples of Poe's desire for a different life, something many of us still pine for. In Sonnet - To Science, Poe expresses his dreams of a simpler time when Nymphs still roamed the land, mysteries still to be solved, and places to be discovered. In Alone, Poe gives us a rare glimpse into his childhood and his early separation between him and his fellow man.
Tales from a MadmanPublished 3 years ago in Poets