A review by jayisreading
Machete: Poems by Tomás Q Morín

informative reflective fast-paced

3.25

I’m not sure how to feel about this collection, though I liked some of the themes that Morín took time to explore, ranging from racism (particularly racial profiling) to fatherhood (which I feel isn’t too common in poetry, though this could just be a result of the types of poems I read). Some of these poems were deceptively simple, and I found myself rereading lines here and there to make sure I was understanding what Morín wanted to get across. It didn’t take away from the reading experience to reread, either, given the relative shortness of this collection and, in fact, made me more appreciative of the thoughtfulness in his poems.

With that said, I will say that this collection felt like a mixed bag for me, primarily because I felt that the poems were a bit all over the place in the sense that there wasn’t a followable flow to see how the ideas would come together. I think that may also be why I found myself rereading poems, mostly because I couldn’t really see the overall picture. It’s quite possible that this was intentional, but this didn’t work for me, personally.

Note: Many thanks to the publisher for sending me a finished paperback copy in exchange for an honest review.
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