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rlgreen91's review against another edition
3.5
Ok, so when I picked this up for a book club, I definitely didn't realize this was a compilation of several of Walker's poetry collections over a few decades. Imagine my surprise when I received the book and since I try to read a poem a day...well you can see why it took me so long to finish, haha.
It did take me a while to get into it but I was able to find different pieces that spoke to me. I do wonder how I would have felt about many of the poems had I read the smaller individual collections as standalone works. Overall it was solid though, with more misses than hits personally for me. 3.5 stars.
It did take me a while to get into it but I was able to find different pieces that spoke to me. I do wonder how I would have felt about many of the poems had I read the smaller individual collections as standalone works. Overall it was solid though, with more misses than hits personally for me. 3.5 stars.
kelsielouise's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Xenophobia, Police brutality, Toxic relationship, Slavery, Sexism, Grief, Racism, and Violence
dernichtraucherin's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-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
3.0
accordingtoemma's review against another edition
2.0
I am going to preface this by saying that I am not a poetry person at all. I chose this book for a project we were doing in my YA Literature class pertaining to African American authors. I am a fan of Alice Walker, so I figured I would try this out even though it was a collection of poems.
Some of them absolutely broke my heart and impacting my thoughts dramatically. There were a select few that changed the way I thought about poetry. However, the majority of them made me feel nothing at all. A lot of them did not make a point or hit home to me at all. Part of that could be because I could not relate to some of the more pressing issues.
All in all, some of them were emotion-inducing, but most were not. I did look forward to continue reading it, but once I got done with it, I did not feel that it really impacted me, which is what I look for in poetry. Select poems very thoroughly got the author's point across and developed well-written arguments. All this being said, it is not my place to judge creativity, which is what poems are more so than novels in my opinion. I know that this is controversial, but it is my viewpoint.
I am now going to list the poems that I liked and took something from. There are not that many when looking at this against the rest of the book, but there looks to be quite a few when they are all typed out. I wanted to keep a record of the ones I enjoyed, and I am keeping that record here.
-not titled, page 38
-South: The Name of Home
-To The Man In The Yellow Terry
-not titled, page 119
-Johann
-To Die Before One Wakes Must Be Glad
-iii
-iv
-iii, Women
-Revolutionary Petunias
-Ending
-Remember?
-These Mornings of Rain
-S M
-Walker
-A Few Sirens
-My Daughter is Coming!
-I'm Really Very Fond
-Without Commercials
-The Thing Itself
-Torture
-These Days
-Telling
-If There Was Any Justice
-A Woman Is Not a Potted Plant
Some of them absolutely broke my heart and impacting my thoughts dramatically. There were a select few that changed the way I thought about poetry. However, the majority of them made me feel nothing at all. A lot of them did not make a point or hit home to me at all. Part of that could be because I could not relate to some of the more pressing issues.
All in all, some of them were emotion-inducing, but most were not. I did look forward to continue reading it, but once I got done with it, I did not feel that it really impacted me, which is what I look for in poetry. Select poems very thoroughly got the author's point across and developed well-written arguments. All this being said, it is not my place to judge creativity, which is what poems are more so than novels in my opinion. I know that this is controversial, but it is my viewpoint.
I am now going to list the poems that I liked and took something from. There are not that many when looking at this against the rest of the book, but there looks to be quite a few when they are all typed out. I wanted to keep a record of the ones I enjoyed, and I am keeping that record here.
-not titled, page 38
-South: The Name of Home
-To The Man In The Yellow Terry
-not titled, page 119
-Johann
-To Die Before One Wakes Must Be Glad
-iii
-iv
-iii, Women
-Revolutionary Petunias
-Ending
-Remember?
-These Mornings of Rain
-S M
-Walker
-A Few Sirens
-My Daughter is Coming!
-I'm Really Very Fond
-Without Commercials
-The Thing Itself
-Torture
-These Days
-Telling
-If There Was Any Justice
-A Woman Is Not a Potted Plant
sherri22's review against another edition
3.0
This poetry collection is being quoted as being more of an anthology offering a historical perspective on three decades of political and spiritual issues. I made many notes to do further research to better understand some events the poet wrote about. I did feel lost on some of her poems but that is my incomplete knowledge of historical events. I look forward to reading more from Alice Walker.
rogenecarter's review against another edition
5.0
Words and inadequate to describe how timely, beautiful, and connected to the earth I found this collection to be. Definitely a lifetime favorite.
cerijones16's review against another edition
4.0
Such a timely- yet timeless- collection, which adeptly navigates the colossal concepts of race, love, womanhood, and death. Walker’s snippets of Africa’s plains and its people are both gorgeous and politically charged.
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