This was a great poetry book. I always absolutely enjoy their work and I can't wait to read more in the near future. I highly recommend it.

Thank you for the opportunities to read this book. I have attempted it on a number of occasions but unfortunately I haven’t been able to get into it.

2.5 stars.

I'm not a fan of rhyme in poems and if I had known that before I read this collection, I wouldn't have picked it up. This book is not bad for a first collection but it's very much in line with Instagram poetry and Rupi Kaur's writing style which is really not my cup of tea or taste. There wasn't enough concrete imagery and impactful, sharp lines but there was emotion. Overall, not for me but could definitely be enjoyed by other people!

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC for this spectacular collection of poems. I've had this sitting in my phone for a while, and I finally decided to give it a try. I found that I was already familiar with some of the poems because I had previously found them on poetry Pinterest boards. Anyone who knows what kind of poetry I like to read would not be surprised that I enjoyed this book. The only reason why it's not getting a 5 star rating is that some of the poems were a little cheesy and predictable.

This is a beautiful collection of poetry. My favorite poem was about always choosing to be yourself. I bought a paperback copy for my personal library.

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I really enjoyed this book. The prose is very capturing and the way the writer wove feelings into his words made it simply impossible to overlook♥

It has some precious pieces to read again and again. But it is not a bunch of poetry that can be noted to have a wow factor.

Nevertheless, it does have some insight speech of our heart, unspoken.

I found I devoured this poetry book. This is not a poet I was familiar with, yet I found I was impressed, and I am interested in reading new compilations that he publishes.

In Songs with Our Eyes Closed Tyler Kent White has woven a powerful compilation of poetry and short prose to inspire and uplift the spirit. To me, these poems especially spoke of being oneself, not being afraid of your full potential, and knowing your true worth. These were lessons I needed at the moment. Lessons I always need.

Poem after poem reminds that you are the stuff of stars, sharing atoms with everything that is. They are a call to mindfulness, and knowing we are all One. There are poems that speak on forgiveness, of yourself, and others, and those that illuminate the less obvious beauty to be found in the depths of loneliness or loss, as well as that found in love and contentment.

you are a
symphony
of stardust
and you were
born to shine
-Songs with Our Eyes Closed

Most poems were succinct, speaking volumes in the ringing silence stretching between words. These poems are morsels to be savoured, one or two at a time. Many make great meditation prompts. There are longer prose pieces I found equally inspiring. Most of the poems and prose are based upon the author's own life, and relationships.

never apologise
for burning too brightly
or for collapsing
into yourself
every night

that is how galaxies are made.
-Songs with Our Eyes Closed

These poems fair vibrate with the poet’s emotion. They seem written with no goal in mind other than to write, and purge feelings, like lancing a boil. Most are intimate pieces, especially the ones on loss and depression. White was brave, to share these poems, these little pieces of heart and soul, that have laid him bare before the reader.

---know that the voids are
simply places for something
more beautiful to grow.
-Songs with Our Eyes Closed

I enjoyed White’s style. By omitting capitalisation, I feel it left the poems unmolded, in a manner of speaking. For me, the lack meant my mind did not latch on to certain words as 'more important’ just because they were capitalised. These have a lovely flow and feel that I wanted to immerse myself in. I have a dislike of poems where each line is capitalised, be it in the middle of a sentence, or no. It comes across as too rigid.

---my biggest fear is that
when I finally find myself
i’ll still be who i am.
-Songs with Our Eyes Closed

I ended up buying an eCopy of the book, and have plans to acquire a hardcopy to keep by my bed for meditation purposes. For any out there who enjoy poetry, this is a must-read collection!

***Many thanks to Netgalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I found this poetry collection to be beautiful and extremely well written. Songs With Our Eyes Closed is another example of a recently very popular style of writing—short but impactful poetry and prose. This is a format where a positive outcome is hard to accomplish, and it is definitely not a format that suites the tastes of all readers nor the abilities and voices of all poets. And it’s very true that this type of writing can easily come across as shallow, random, and repetitive. However, I find that this can also be an incredibly powerful and meaningful way to convey many emotions—that was definitely the case for this particular collection.

White’s writing is full of both beauty and sincerity. Even the shortest poems always feel that they were given an equal amount of time. effort, and detail, and did not lack the emotional depth and maturity of longer poems. He shows a great deal of candor as well as creativity, mixing human emotions with vivid and artistic imagery taken from our world and the universe we live in.

White packs this collection with plenty of affirmations, calling us to look at ourselves in a different and more loving way. The language and topics themselves are easily accessible for anyone, whether they are poetry lovers or not—it could also serve as a fantastic introduction into the world of poetry for a first time reader.

As always, poetry is hard to review as it is such a personal experience, and what I took away from this collection is not what everyone is going to take away. However, this is a very well-written work that skillfully captures truly human emotions that each and every one of us has felt or will feel at some point in our lives, ranging from the joy of love to the pain of loss. His words really spoke to me and related so well to where I am in my life and what I have been feeling, whether those words were reflecting my emotions or pushing me into a more positive mindset.

It is very touching and brimming with honesty and earnestness—never feeling rushed or lacking complexity, even in the most straightforward phrases. White has a very lyrical style that flows effortlessly from line to line and is very pleasant to read. I would highly recommend giving this collection a try.

Tyler Kent White should seek employment at Hallmark.

Tyler Kent White is now a new favorite poet because of Songs with Our Eyes Closed. There's so, so many lines I bookmarked in this book, that I just need to have. The way he's written some of these poems were just beautiful. Two of my favorite lines from this ARC was "you are a symphony of stardust and you were born to shine" and "the stars folded into the moon". This book is filled with so many, many amazing lines just like these.
Songs with Our Eyes Closed is mixed with short and long poems & a mix of different topics.
White's poetry styles are simply breathtaking.

A lovely collection of poems showcasing a range of emotions.

This collection evoked so many emotions within me. I laughed, I cried and I smiled until my cheeks hurt. The poems are pretty short but my goodness do they manage to make you feel an awful lot with such few words. The collection is beautifully written and it felt so honest, like he had shared the most intimate parts of himself with the reader. As with Songs with Our Eyes Closed, I read this one in one sitting. Upon getting to the end, I found myself wanting so much more. I will definitely be reading more by Beau Taplin in the future.

This was a very mixed bag for me. The poetry ranged from the kind of fluffy poetry that somebody pastes below an instagram photo of hands being held, or a sunset, or the like, to some powerful, personal poetry about the poet's relationship (or lack thereof) with his father. So about a quarter of the poems I rolled my eyes at, a quarter really had me engaged as a reader, and the rest were just so-so, not really capturing my interest but featuring enough skill to keep me going. It was definitely abnormally long for a poetry collection, and accordingly I think it would have been perfectly fine to give the fluff poetry the boot.

This is a pretty good first effort.. The poems deal in too much abstraction for my taste, without enough concrete imagery to really grab onto -- and perhaps I'm put off by having advice dispensed to me by a speaker who is 26 years old? I'm trying to figure that one out. There are a few instances where White really latches on to a particular word ("petrichor" is one I could do without seeing again) and I find myself longing for variation. Some of the white space is well used, but in certain areas it seems to serve little purpose other than taking up space.

For folks who are just beginning to read poetry, this is an excellent and accessible collection.

I’m a fan of poetry, so I decided to make it my goal to read more this year. That means delving into the plethora of contemporary poetry collections often written in the same style as Rupi Kaur. While I’m not always a fan of this style, I decided to give "Songs With Our Eyes Closed a chance".

What struck me immediately about this collection is that many of the poems do in fact rhyme. A lot of contemporary poems these days don’t rhyme at all, so I greatly enjoyed that these ones did. Even the ones that didn’t really rhyme flowed really well and that made them easy to read. For those who can’t commit to intense, traditional poetry, this will be a good option.

Some of the imagery within the poems didn’t speak to me; there a lot of mentions of teeth, for example. But the images that he carried throughout like stars and nature did work well. It also helped connect the poems.

The most important thing about poetry, in my opinion, is whether it affects the reader. Some of the poems really spoke to me, especially the ones about love, and some of the ones about grief and depression. The imagery and language he used I felt expressed things in a very universal way. I also enjoyed his uplifting poems about having courage and being kind to and believing in yourself. A lot of my favourite poems were within the first sections of the book.

"Songs With Our Eyes Closed" is a really quick read because many of the poems are short. Some of the poems and some of the imagery I didn’t like, but a lot of the poems I did like. They mostly flowed well, and quite a few actually rhymed. I enjoyed reading this overall.

I was only reading this one in one sitting, and literally I loved it pretty much. This is just another a compilation of poems book that told you about what happens to our daily lives.

This is a deeply moving, emotional and heartfelt collection of poems. I enjoyed reading through all of them and being drawn in by the powerful way the author wrote each line.
Truly a wonderful collection.