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A review by mafiabadgers
Poetry & Swearing Vol. 1 by Robert Florence
2.0
First read 01/2025
It got off to an inauspicious beginning with 'hello / I am the book you are holding / hold me close to your heart / read me and when you are done with the reading / read me again from the start'. Oh god, I wish he'd stop trying to rhyme. It's awful, and detracts from what might otherwise sometimes be rather good poems. The book's structured by the little introductory pieces that come before each poem. In some cases, the context drastically influences the reading of the poem and makes them much better (notably 'My Spaceship was Docked at the Royal'), but at other points the tendency to explain the poems weakens them. The quality varies wildly, from the Batman poem (so good that it made me buy the book), to a rather embarrassing piece about Kanye West. I'm left with the rather sour feeling that the book didn't live up to its excellent title.
It got off to an inauspicious beginning with 'hello / I am the book you are holding / hold me close to your heart / read me and when you are done with the reading / read me again from the start'. Oh god, I wish he'd stop trying to rhyme. It's awful, and detracts from what might otherwise sometimes be rather good poems. The book's structured by the little introductory pieces that come before each poem. In some cases, the context drastically influences the reading of the poem and makes them much better (notably 'My Spaceship was Docked at the Royal'), but at other points the tendency to explain the poems weakens them. The quality varies wildly, from the Batman poem (so good that it made me buy the book), to a rather embarrassing piece about Kanye West. I'm left with the rather sour feeling that the book didn't live up to its excellent title.