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gar42's review against another edition
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.25
An absolutely stunning and heartbreaking book of poems and portraits about the loss of the speaker’s mother. Using myth, fairytale, and story, the speaker inhabits a sort of witch-like madwoman pleading with the world after a devastating loss. What is a woman when she’s no longer a daughter, when she can’t be a mother?
Haunting and breathtaking. The portraits chip away at the distance we ascribe to “speaker” and “poet.” We see Rachel Eliza Griffiths blurry, bare, and small in the landscapes she must occupy without her mother
Haunting and breathtaking. The portraits chip away at the distance we ascribe to “speaker” and “poet.” We see Rachel Eliza Griffiths blurry, bare, and small in the landscapes she must occupy without her mother
thalia16's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
silasburke's review against another edition
4.0
Terribly sad and beautiful. Some of the formats didn’t speak to me but otherwise just a great collection.
Favorite poems: Heart of Darkness; Elegy, Surrounded by Seven Trees, Signs, Color Theory & Praxis (I); Good Mother
Favorite poems: Heart of Darkness; Elegy, Surrounded by Seven Trees, Signs, Color Theory & Praxis (I); Good Mother
poetrywitch's review against another edition
5.0
Rachel Eliza Griffith’s hybrid poetry & photo collection, “Seeing The Body" is a luminous exploration of grief, black womanhood, somatic memory, and radical self-love. Written for her late mother, these poems and photos reckon with mourning and daughterhood through a tender, transformative lens. Here is one of my favorite excerpts:
“How awful to have such
wonder. The final way wonder itself
opened beneath my mother’s face
at the last moment. As if she was
a small girl kneeling in a puddle
& looking at her face for the first time,
her fingers gripping the loud,
wet rim of the universe.”
“How awful to have such
wonder. The final way wonder itself
opened beneath my mother’s face
at the last moment. As if she was
a small girl kneeling in a puddle
& looking at her face for the first time,
her fingers gripping the loud,
wet rim of the universe.”
aneumann's review against another edition
1.0
DNF. A few good poems could not neither my interest, nor the collection, together.
lapetite's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
How would my mother find us again with so much starlight? How would I know who the wind was & was it any different than when my mother was breathing her name across the sky?
A heart-wrenching poetry collection dealing mainly with the death of the author’s mother. It is fierce, delicate, imposing, and quiet all at once.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent and Terminal illness
Moderate: Sexual violence and Racism