I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

My first word of advice when picking up this book? Do not skip the Preface. The author has absolutely delightful insight into the nature of poetry and I honestly laughed when I read the word literati (side note: I know it’s a real word but I cannot help but associate it with illuminati).

The poetry itself instilled a soft delight in me as I read. It is filled with rich imagery and longing. I was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed this collection, as poetry collections I’ve gotten from Netgalley have been rather hit or miss with me.

I would definitely recommend picking this book up.

Bravo Mike Bond!
I really enjoyed sitting one afternoon and reading this twice.
Two of my favourites were “What better Way” and “ Paradise ducks “
I loved the beginning of the book, this gave me an insight of what kind of poetry I may have been about to read, though it wasn’t “about” the author which was nice. It was really nice however to hear a little about Mike Bond at the end and put the whole book together 5 star for that alone!
The depth of some of his poetry was fantastically dictionary searching (I had to use a dictionary to put some parts together) Wonderful! Make me work to love the word !

I enjoyed this book of poetry and the writer’s perspective on nature, life, death, and love. The prose is simple but evocative. I found the nature imagery particularly beautiful and enjoyed how the wild, natural world was used to reflect broader life. The overwhelming feeling I got from this collection was a yearning for a quieter, simpler time, being one with nature. Aside from the poems, I was very drawn in by the introduction to this collection and the author’s discussion of poetry. I’m not sure how well it fit with the tone of the poetry and therefore it felt like a strange choice of introduction, but I found it fascinating as a stand-alone essay. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

I love poetry, but I won't read anything that I don't enjoy. In this collection of poems I found myself reading over and over certain poems and completely ignoring others. My favourites were Evening, March and Buffalo Caller. I will definitely re-read this book.

There are some very profound poems that are really touching and thought-provoking. The author paints great scenes of places such as mountains and plains. There are themes of love and loss and forgetting the past. I truly enjoyed a perspective about parts of history that may be forgotten in poetic form. Reading this book felt like flashbacks from the past to the present, like a glimpse into someone's inherited memories. It was very enjoyable to read.

I haven't read a book of poems for a while and have never heard of Mike Bond, so thank you to the publisher and netgalley for a copy of this book which rectifies both these issues! Having looked the author up on Google I must admit I was expecting more from his poems, and was also irritated by the preface and his diatribe about other poets - readers should be able to make their own minds up as to what is good or bad. I'm not sure whether it was because I was reading on an e-reader, and maybe the punctuation was wrong, but the first sentence of the preface made little sense to me. "ancient as the human heart, poetry is."
The poems themselves were varied and many may be more relevant to US citizens with their references to golden gate bridge, prairies, buffaloes and native American peoples and beliefs.
Maybe for this reason I preferred the love poems and the short pithy verses such as "Stay". I do plan to return the book though and hopefully come to love some of the ones I rejected initially!

Main topics: nature, spirits, life, death, love, American West.

This book is amazing. The descriptions of nature are breathtaking.
It felt like being in the locations, and seeing the trees, the rivers.
The thoughts about life, death (and what lies between them) are so well constructed.
The poems about the tribes, their death and their suffering were very real.

Definitely rereading this book again soon.

I won't claim to be a real poetry buff but I was attracted to this volume for its themes of the natural world and our connections to it. I found some works were breathtaking in their clarity, some required contemplation ( is that not the purpose?) and a rare few completely abstract; to me, anyway. I could closely relate to "The Old Fool", empathise with the personal feelings of "Sorrow", "Nothing" and "Pain". The conjured images of the long-gone Great American West I found particularly enthralling.
I think really that it's earthy sentimentality really appeals.

I received a digital ARC copy of this book via NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I choose this book because I loved the cover, then there was the Preface- Rooted in the heart and I enjoyed the way he talks about Poetry and the origins of it.
“We should all write and read poems; they better our lives” and I agree with this with all my heart.

And then the Poems started, and I was disappointed, I expected something more, some of the poem I couldn’t connect with or understand, some of them were fine, and I loved and Enjoyed a good number of the rest.

I can’t give it three stars because it does worth more than that but it’s not four stars either.
I think I will add this book to my collection.

I was disappointed in this collection, not because of the quality of the poetry, but because Bond alludes to so much Indigenous content through the title, cover and imagery within the poems, while seeming to have no direct ties to the culture or heritage himself. That speaks to me of appropriation and misrepresentation.

I didn't find the poetry as firmly "nature" themed as the book details imply. There is a lot of other subject matter, such as the Golden Gate Bridge, shopping, and glasses of wine.

I particularly enjoyed the poems "Absaroka"and "Escalante Canyon".

I was drawn to this poetry collection because the blurb points out that Mike Bond was first published by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, for whom I have tremendous admiration. As the beautiful cover already suggests, many of the poems deal with mankind's connection to the natural world, but also with the connection to their own inner worlds. I found many poems so-so, but two things really confused me:

- Bond draws heavily on Native American themes and imagery: The "Great Spirit" is mentioned four times, there are drums and buffalos, and there is even one poem that says "Name us all,/ hundreds of tribes/ thousands of clans;/ many millions of lives." So I googled away, and while Mike Bond's CV is flaunted on different websites and has all kinds of info ("Active in political efforts to control the U.S. national debt and related problems" - ?), I found no trace of him being Native. So as he apparently isn't (please correct me if I'm wrong here!), I'd like to argue that WASPs should work on their own poetry and not appropriate Native American culture.

- The book has a preface in which Bond rants about "the poetry profesionals, umbilically tied to welfare stpiends from politically correct universities and mindless foundations" - you can of course throw around such dismissive and arrogant statements, but you have to be able to back them up, and Bond's oeuvre does not stand a chance against the likes of Robin Robertson and Danez Smith. Poetry needs to be easy to decode, Bond argues, and poetry has never had it so good because of the great rock bands who sing it. I find it funny to bring up such a (questionable) argument and then to omit poets like Kendrick Lamar and Jay-Z - if there is poetry in contemporary music, you have to celebrate rap first and foremost.

More importantly, though: You don't tell me what poetry has to be, Bond! I want my poetry to be all kinds of things, unrestricted by rules, I want accessible and emotional poetry, I want complicated, puzzling poetry, I want political poetry, spiritual poetry, sung and spoken poetry, I want rap, I want poetry for the masses and for the niches, I want poetry in universities and in factories, I want it all, Bond, all of it!!

A book of poetry, some free verse, some formal, that evokes the American West, its openness, wildness, and its sense of desolation. Contemplating the universe and man’s place in it, along with the continuing destruction of the natural world, I found this an enormously satisfying experience. Recommended.

This was an ARC in exchange for an honest review with thanks to Netgalley and Big City Press. After finishing this book, I actually put in a preorder for a physical copy as I downright adored it.

The Drum Beats Within Us like most poetry collections has a few themes and layers running throughout, However, none are so impressive when Bond turns his attention to nature and the results are hard-hitting to say the least; the imagery is vibrant, devastating, and haunting.

A thoroughly modern 21 century collection that revisits and revises classic themes.

Highly recommended.

Mike Bond’s collection of American poetry opens the reader to the wide-open nature of the mountainous North West. From the Native Americans to the ranchers, the region inspires the reader with rugged land and its wildlife. There is a primitive feel to the poetry that reflects the rustic nature of the land. It is the Great Spirit links people to the earth and the environment that science seems too refined and sterile for. It is the beat that mimics the human heart in the state of nature and also a reminder of how man has changed not only the landscape and the planet. The poetry is a symbol of beauty that reminds us to tread lightly on the earth much like its first inhabitants. A beautiful collection of poetry that will make the adult reader remember his childhood draw to the West.