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hinoki's review
challenging
emotional
inspiring
fast-paced
4.0
I am slowly learning more about poetry. I had no idea poems could be written like this. I'm taking off one star because I felt some of the poems were repetitive (as in some poems were too alike to each other.) and I think the poems in the first half were stronger than in the second.
royourboat's review
5.0
If I could give it a higher rating I would. Richard Blanco, you are one of the greatest poets of our time.
michaelgreenreads's review
5.0
On a soft note, I have been reading this poetry collection on and off for almost a year now. The poem that shares the collection’s name made me cry!
spiderfelt's review
4.0
One of the last squares remaining for #bookbingonw2017 was a collection of poetry. Not sure where to start, I recalled the national poet laureate when Obama was inaugurated in 2008 was a Cuban American. A quick search turned up this evocative collection filled with stories of Blanco's childhood, and of his exiled extended family who dream of the land they loved and left. The poems are complete pictures of a time and place elegantly rendered.
palliem's review
5.0
"Killing Mark" might be one of the best love poems I've ever read--maybe because I can relate so well to the speaker's irrational anguish and anxiety!
jakekilroy's review
5.0
I absolutely, truly, sincerely adored this collection. Richard Blanco’s poems are so rich and colorful, yet so unfathomably breezy. He speaks of his past, of his family, of his loves, all as if over coffee or tea after dinner. There’s no profound declaration, as if to push for attention; he just writes in a way that immediately has you curious without need of page-turner antics. It’s earnest and appreciative/adoring, and he honors his Cuban heritage (the cooking especially), his Florida upbringing, his move to Maine for true love, and most of all his relatives, whom he captures with such detail, from their trinkets to their quietest quirks. He’ll write about a night on the coast or a moment in a living room and you are there, as enamored with life as him, without overpromising what can be. You are accepting of what has been and what is, and you are grateful for the chance to be a part of this existence, despite the tragedies of death, heartbreak, and the like. This was just a wonderful read, from start to finish.