HelEinir's Books

a) poetry is
____________.

-anything you want it to be.

Apparently yes, yes it is, and this is a revelation to me.
I also thought that at least a pinch of talent was needed to be a poet.

Am I a poetess now? Is my mom?

When I finished this (and it didn't take more than maybe an hour at most) I wasn't sure how to rate it at first, not wanting to hurt the feelings of an author who clearly has been through a lot. Good thing that it's hard to be anything but honest at 2 a.m, otherwise I might have been more generous when I don't think this particular piece of work deserves it.

I don't doubt the author's feelings are genuine and that she did her best to convey them in... what she and a bunch of other people pass off as poetry.

I might have seen one or two pieces in this collection that could be called actual poems but the rest just read like somewhat connected every day thoughts trying way too hard to be deep and convey emotion and failing at it. Things that twelve year old me would have written (or did write, actually) in her diary and put more effort into. I was reminded of the Myspace emo fuckery of 2006 (second time in as many months that I'm reminded of Myspace by a book, that cannot be good) and the little quotes (and passive aggressive messages) we were able to put as our statuses on msn. (Man I feel old now)

"i would like to eat
one meal
without feeling
ashamed"

-healing is ongoing


"i hate you."
- his version of "I love you"

If those are the standards for today's poetry then I should go ahead and publish my diaries from ages 12 to 15; you would have a hard time finding the difference. I might just need to build enough of a reputation on social media first and have a fanbase big enough that will eat up whatever I feed them.

I'm not saying some pieces of this aren't relatable or that there isn't worth or value to be found in the author's words (having to look hard sometimes), there's just no real quality to her work, nothing that makes her stand out, and again, this, imo, cannot be called poetry (if you want to go super technical you might be able to argueit is), it's even lazy at times. If this is what poets aspire to be today then the bar has been set way too low and our very impressionable generation needs to rectify that...

ASAP

"your happiness
comes before
anyone else's
happiness.

-The real meaning of self-respect."

Guuuys, really?

It almost makes me angry to see that all some people need are the words "Poetry" and "feminism" in a couple of shelves to be immediately predisposed to rate something way higher than it deserves.