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#2023Book81

Currently reading 🌹

Not the greatest.

This collection is peppered with moments that took my breath away and/or caused me to spontaneously sob. Mateer deals with trauma, violence, self-worth, life as a queer woman, and so much more, and the way Aphrodite and other gods are incorporated into it is lovely. As with most collections, parts of this didn't speak to me or felt cliché, but when Mateer's words hit me, they hit me hard. I will absolutely check out more of her work.

CW: domestic violence, losing a loved one

"ON STILL HAVING THE OCCASIONAL TENDER THOUGHT TOWARD MY ABUSER
Even a match remembers
the moment before it was struck."

"I didn't forget how to fight for myself.
I forgot that I could."

"It was my blood that made the roses red.
Did they tell you that?
My pain shaped the whole world."

"In Troy
they fought
over Helen
like children
but Achilles
mourned Patroclus
the way a soul
mourns a body."

"She says, 'If you were only meant to be beautiful, we wouldn't have put you down here in the dirt.'"

I am sad I checked this out from the library, now I have to go and buy it. I want to languishing in its pages.
There is nothing I love more then a good sentence that can stop my reading eyes and this has many of those.

"I was human. Small and predictable."

This is going to be a doozy.

5/5🌟Channeling Aphrodite's mythology in these poems and prose giving hope and positivity to show up for our own happiness as female's first, while also baring her most intimate self.I loved the way she used the mythology of the female god's, weaving it with her own story and the notion of believing in oneself. Read in one sitting, then again more slowly. A meaningful, uplifting and inventive feminist retelling. #poetry #bookstagram #bookreview

Trista Mateer never disappoints! Moving and relevant, another favorite from a modern poet!

I don't know why I keep doing this to myself. I want to give young, new poets a chance and I am always looking for new talent, but every time I try them out, I end up disappointed. I think it's great that so many people can turn to writing to express their thoughts, heal from their pasts, and fight for social justices. But this new wave of poets and their poetry seem to read more like diary entries or Instagram posts than poems.

#netgalley #arc