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4.27 AVERAGE
4.27 AVERAGE
Amanda Gorman is my favorite kind of poet— the kind who has a love affair with language. She looks at hard and horrible things, she tells the truth about them, but in so doing she makes them beautiful. Her sense of rhythm feels like a song and a heartbeat. And the way that she turns words again and again, like a prism throwing light and rainbows in all directions, feels like a kind of magic.
Stunning collection of poetry centered on current events. Read it slowly and savor a poem or two at a time.
this was so FRUSTRATING!!
but some parts were really good
a lot of them however were super preachy in a, I have no idea who her intended audience is sort of way. is she writing to black people? or white people?
and sometimes her position was unclear, like is she anti-mask? or anti-isolation???
also, the poem about masks within a mask.... c'mon!!
im trying to give her the benefit of the doubt because she is a millennial, and they have the tendency to be sincere in strange ways
but then lines like this
"some days, we just need a place
where we can bleed in peace.
our only word for this is
Poem"
like that slapped! but i felt like i was wadding through a bog for a few lilies. a lot of times i felt like shaking her and asking who made her put a particular line or even entire poem into the book. WAS IT THE EDITOR??? THE PUBLICIST?? because they were insanely disjoined
anyways
go awf skinny black girl ig
but some parts were really good
a lot of them however were super preachy in a, I have no idea who her intended audience is sort of way. is she writing to black people? or white people?
and sometimes her position was unclear, like is she anti-mask? or anti-isolation???
also, the poem about masks within a mask.... c'mon!!
im trying to give her the benefit of the doubt because she is a millennial, and they have the tendency to be sincere in strange ways
but then lines like this
"some days, we just need a place
where we can bleed in peace.
our only word for this is
Poem"
like that slapped! but i felt like i was wadding through a bog for a few lilies. a lot of times i felt like shaking her and asking who made her put a particular line or even entire poem into the book. WAS IT THE EDITOR??? THE PUBLICIST?? because they were insanely disjoined
anyways
go awf skinny black girl ig
This was such an amazing piece of work! Most poetry I read is removed from the time period it was written in but not so with this one. It dealt so much with COVID-19 and everything that happened because of the pandemic as well as the riots that went on throughout 2020. Incredible book and collection and you can tell that Gorman really played with the genre, experimenting with format and imagery as well as using grammar, color, and structure to convey her ideas and thoughts.
audiobook - a very gorgeous collection of poems, the themes are so contemporary to the 2020-2021 experience. it’s also nice to go back to a more classic form of poetry after mostly reading “Instagram” poetry lately. it was lovely to hear the author read her own works, but I don’t think I’ll listen to poetry on audiobook again, I found it tough to really get into, easy to miss things.
Thought provoking in parts. I'm not a big poetry fan, however I have students that are so I'll likely be purchasing it for the library.
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Poems from the pandemic could be a good subtitle. This was the right time to read them for me. The freshness of the trauma has dulled, and reading about the years of covid, BLM protests, USA leaving Afghanistan , forest fires etcetera was a reminder of how quick the human mind can recover and even forget. And what time of crises we still live in. Amanda Gorman sure has a way to bring some perspective and some lessons that need to be heard again and again.
3.5/5
It's an indisputable fact that Amanda Gorman is a gifted poet and writer — we all watched her Inaugural poem in awe, and she captivated the world for a reason. Her words command attention. That's why I wish this collection felt a bit stronger, and reflected the commanding feeling that I was chasing going into this.
I did like how the book played with lots of different formats, including erasure poems that were really powerful. Though some things felt more like loose writing exercises than actual honed poems, it was nice to see her explore a variety of forms, and to see how she chose certain forms to reflect and emphasize certain feelings.
However, there was something about the very topical nature of a lot of these poems (written during the pandemic, notably in the early days) that felt a bit...premature? She is putting words to feelings many of us felt, but these feelings felt more canned and obvious, rather than the intimate and individual observations of the poet. Not to mention...the pandemic is still happening. To try and write a sweeping poem about its effects without it really having ebbed makes some of the work immediately feel dated. I wish this collection felt more like an expression of an individual artist, rather than an attempt to capture such a wide host of feelings.
Given Gorman's more free-flowing style and roots in spoken word, I did wonder if this is a book that would be better experienced in audio. But regardless, there is still no denying Gorman's raw talent, and I think she is certainly just at the beginning of a long career in writing. I can't wait to see how her work grows and evolves over time.
It's an indisputable fact that Amanda Gorman is a gifted poet and writer — we all watched her Inaugural poem in awe, and she captivated the world for a reason. Her words command attention. That's why I wish this collection felt a bit stronger, and reflected the commanding feeling that I was chasing going into this.
I did like how the book played with lots of different formats, including erasure poems that were really powerful. Though some things felt more like loose writing exercises than actual honed poems, it was nice to see her explore a variety of forms, and to see how she chose certain forms to reflect and emphasize certain feelings.
However, there was something about the very topical nature of a lot of these poems (written during the pandemic, notably in the early days) that felt a bit...premature? She is putting words to feelings many of us felt, but these feelings felt more canned and obvious, rather than the intimate and individual observations of the poet. Not to mention...the pandemic is still happening. To try and write a sweeping poem about its effects without it really having ebbed makes some of the work immediately feel dated. I wish this collection felt more like an expression of an individual artist, rather than an attempt to capture such a wide host of feelings.
Given Gorman's more free-flowing style and roots in spoken word, I did wonder if this is a book that would be better experienced in audio. But regardless, there is still no denying Gorman's raw talent, and I think she is certainly just at the beginning of a long career in writing. I can't wait to see how her work grows and evolves over time.