Modern Poetry~ ✨

     

Anyone who knows me in real life knows I adore poetry. I have loved to write and read it since I was 11 years old, and I even took an extensive poetry course in high school. 

      While I do have my own quips with the extent of what i learned about it-like most subjects here in America, it is unfortunately very Eurocentric and I can’t help but hate I’m missing out on good poetry from other cultures 😩- I thoroughly enjoyed my time in getting to fully immerse myself in authors like Sylvia Plath, Linda Pastan, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and, my own personal favorite, Rumi.

       However, I feel as if poetry is widely accepted more as a bygone art rather than something that is, currently. That is unfortunate, and so I took it upon myself to explore modern poetry books and options! 

       And where else to start but Rupi Kaur? The world of poetry was absolutely transformed by this amazing woman. She brought a different brand of poetry to the table that was all her own. I loved both ‘Milk and Honey’ and ‘The Sun and her Flowers.’ Kaur has a magnificent way of writing that really captures the ideals of humanism, and speaks to universal female experiences. 

     I first picked up both Kaur’s books about two years ago and delighted in both of them. However, for those two years, I have hardly even touched another collection of modern poetry! So this weekend I packed up a ton of my old books and sold them at a used book store in return for money I could use on new books! The books I bought in question were “Apologies that Never Came” by Pierre Alex Jeanty, “I Hope You Stay” by Courtney Peppernell, and “Strangely Wrapped Gift” by Emily Juniper. 

      Well, let’s just say I hate to start of my blog with such a negative post. 😅 

      The first thing I would like to say is that this may just not be my cup of tea! Some of the books I didn’t enjoy, had RAVING reviews, so the style may just not be to my own personal preference. I’d also like to add in that I am thoroughly pleased to see how diverse the poetry game has become. It warms my heart to see people of underrepresented groups writing away. ❤️ That being said let’s move on to see how my poetry reading journey went. 

      The first book by Mr. Jeanty, was not my favorite. The concept was creative, however the emotion was largely lost on me. I felt the vocabulary was loaded to try and make me feel something but I just didn’t. I didn’t really have an emotional connection to this poetry. Much of it felt cliche and it didn’t do much with literary devices such as metaphors or allusions. Some of the wording also felt very juvenile, which I didn’t particularly enjoy. This book continued on for a lot longer than it felt necessary and that kind of made it a chore to read. I also felt kind of upset that this (AND ‘I Hope You Stay’) was another round of breakup poetry. I feel this has become an overused concept. Heartbreak is a pain, trust me, I know, but heartbreak comes in plethoras of forms beyond romantic. I guess I had just been hoping for a different approach. I have reviewed Jeanty’s catalog though and some of his other works look more promising, so I will check those out! 

      I will be honest and say that I had a lot of hope for “I Hope you Stay” just based on the opening excerpt! From the first impression, I was really excited due to the rhyme scheme presence alone. Most modern poetry is free write, which Is all jolly, but I find it a nice change of pace that someone seemed to follow a format of some kind. Then I turned the page to the table of contents and It was like a copy and paste of “The Sun and Her Flowers” 🙃 the chapters and concept were the exact same, but I still had a little bit of hope until I started reading and I was just not stricken by it; yet again. 

      The biggest problem I feel for the both of these books, is I feel the authors wrote them to write. Poetry is not a good medium for this type of work. Poetry is a vehicle for messages, change, emotions, heartbreaking stories, and earth shattering concepts. Not just something you can continue to churn out for monetary gain. These are still all just my opinions but I truly believe poetry has to be felt, to be good. This is what differs it from just regular writing.

      So what about, “Strangely Wrapped Gift”? Oh boy. This was a different brand and had to be my favorite out of the books. It felt personal. It felt real. The words were beautiful and they were something I could relate to. Emily Juniper’s first poetry collection (I believe) was used to talk about destigmitizing mental health and her own mental illness and experiences. This book felt real. It felt simple. It didn’t need to say more than it had to to get the point across. It put a sweater on me, made me hot cocoa, and tucked me into bed. This felt like felt poetry. It’s simple, but indescribable and I felt like it truly captured the types of love and pain that is really involved in the human experience. This book is truly why I will continue to explore modern poetry.

      I hope this entry wasn’t too harsh or long! I am very passionate about literature and poetry and I have too many thoughts for my brain-sometimes it gets weighted down and I just fall over like a tumblina doll, lol. I hope you enjoyed! Leave some poetry for me to review in the comments! Modern or not; I’ll let you know what I think ;)