Reading this book brought me to a home. A safe place.

It was filled with important things that didn't drag or feel heavy.

At the very least, it was enlightening.

A relief to know it's not uncommon to feel a type of way and for how fucked up it is to be so common in the first place.

There were many keys points that I myself have always wanted to address

I, however, don't have the same platform or finesse

I will though, someday

It felt great to hear my voice in my head read words by another instead of droning over my own and feeling isolated.

You see, I've found that I could relate to the high school experience

Peer-pressured fumbling with alcohol-flavored tongues, the force so great you go along so that they don't notice too much

The assaults of my sisters are their own shrines of endurance but never a clean slate or a choice

Did I mention my first kiss was with a girl?

It confused the shit out of me so I kissed a boy, I hated them both

These poems coming from my Caucasian counterpart are no less different than mine.

We really are not that different.

Wow. A raw and deep touch to the authors reclaiming of her eating disorder and rape. It is not a light book, and can be very triggering to anyone who is recovering from either. But it is beautifully written and it is something I continued reading because she is not apologizing for her past, she is reclaiming her voice. I would definitely not skip this one.

Loved the gentle poetry of this book which focuses on tough subjects. Such as, eating disorders and body image. How messed up and catty girls can be to each other. Loved it!

There is denying, whenever I see a Blythe Baird poem come up on Button Poetry, I am straight there, and this collection of poems which was recently released is certainly proof of why as she spills her words perfectly throughout If My Body Could Speak.

A personal collection of poems, it was never going to be anything less from this writer, and the words are delivered with such emotion on every page. Poems that run through different themes such as sexuality, politics and family and each one makes you think and puts you for a second in the writer’s shoes and it makes sometimes uneasy and sometimes hopeful reading.

Poems such as ‘Pocket Feminism’ resonate just as much now as they ever did in this book and poems such as ‘When The Fat Girl Gets Skinny’ make it clear why so many people have heard these words out loud as they still feel as raw on paper as they did as she performed it. ‘Lipstick’ is a short poem, but I bloody love that last line, ‘I am my own special occasion’ and I think about it everyday.

A brilliant book, it’s so good to have her work in one place so I can read it again and again.

I've been a fan of Blythe Baird's poetry for a while now, having seen her recite her poetry on the Button Poetry YouTube channel. Seeing her publish her own poetry collection was a wonderful surprise. Reading this collection left me a little breathless at times, mostly because of how much I can relate to it. Baird doesn't hold back in her poetry, in fact, it's a place where she lets herself open up about her past mistakes. I wish I had something like this growing up and going through high school. Someone to remind me that I'm not alone and that I never was. In fact, many of the poems in here remind me of high school so clearly that I can almost smell it. Overall, I really enjoyed this collection and reacquainting myself with some old favourites.

Button Poetry has been an equal share of hits and misses for me. Blythe Baird's If My Body Could Speak put the hits in lead. It's the most honest collection I've read this year. Though, a trigger warning is needed as the book's topics range between sexual orientation, eating disorders, and rape.

This book was incredible. I've always loved Blythe's spoken word, and this collection focuses on eating disorders, depression, and sexuality - all in ways that feel very relatable to me. I would absolutely recommend this book, and look forward to going back to it and reading it again.

This was so good. Definitely going to make my top three poetry favorites for 2019. I actually read a couple of these poems via friends. It's not often that poetry makes its way through word of mouth in non super reader circles. Rupi Kaur did, and for many of the same reasons. Getting to what it means to be woman. I especially loved the one related to coming out to her mother. Reminded me of last year's Honeybee by Trista Mateer in how she approaches the intimacy and complications of girl girl love. Others have said a lot more and better about the body image work, so U wanted to say read this for more than that, even though the fat girl me did cry over those too.

Hunger is at the heart of Blythe Bard’s brutally honest and painful collection of poetry. Starting with “WHEN THE FAT GIRL GETS SKINNY”, we’re pulled into the reality of living in recovery, not just from the eating disorder Bard struggles with throughout much of the collection, but recovery from what it is to be a woman today. The idea that you can simultaneously be too much and not enough is an undercurrent throughout the body of her work: too much, when she wants to be open and honest about her sexuality and rape but not enough to fit in with the cool girls and “feminist bros” that, while personified in the academic experience.

Bard’s “too much” is explored deeply in poems like “DRESS CODE, a pantoum”, which details the hypocrisy of school dress codes and how quickly a girl’s body develops (a say girl, as the experience is happening when the narrator is 11 years old) determines when she is free for public consumption. That we sexualize girls as soon as they develop bodies that align with what a “woman” should look like (breasts and hips, but not too much of either) while simultaneously warning them that boys are dangerous robs girls of their childhood. Of their education. She is too much because an adult is telling her she is too much — that her body needs covering up, that it poses a threat.

Shifting to not being enough, Bard uses experiences with love and sexuality. In “THE KINDEST THING SHE ALMOST DID”, a familiar battle with trying to figure out how to make a partner happy is fought. No matter what she does, Bard knows she’s not enough for this lover. But she keeps trying and trying and trying, trying to change into something else — something more — that she’ll be enough for this woman. She hungers for love, is starving for it, now that she’s accepted her sexuality, has been recovering from her eating disorder, can love fully and freely. But not everyone is as accepting of love as she is.

And this is part of the larger message I felt Bard was relaying in this collection. We can, by ourselves, own our trauma and recovery. We can learn to live with the ghosts that haunt us. But it doesn’t mean that the rest of the world is ready to hear our truths. That the world doesn’t want another slam poet on stage talking about rape, like in “YET ANOTHER RAPE POEM”, but that should silence you.

As someone working tirelessly to come through my trauma, If My Body Could Speak not only made me feel seen, but also inspired me to find my voice. It doesn’t matter if I’m too much or not enough for someone, and it’s okay to feel that hurt loudly. Feeling is as much part of recovery is turning off the calorie calculator in your head is. Fans of Amanda Lovelace and Sabrina Benaim will find pieces of themselves reflected back in Bard’s poetry.

This was my first time reading Blythe Baird, despite hearing so much about her over the years! Overall, I enjoyed this collection. While some of the poems were a little too straight forward for my liking, I felt as though I could relate to many of them. I can’t wait to seek out videos of these poems being performed! I would definitely recommend this collection to friends and others.

#IfMyBodyCouldSpeak is a collection of honest poetry that deals with tough topics like sexual assault and body image. They are short and long length poems that aren’t just instagrammable but raw and eloquent.

I will look forward to more from this compelling poet!

Than you #NetGalley and the publisher for my free copy in return for an unbiased review.

[I received an e-ARC of this book in exchange for a honest review.]

I love this book! I am a huge fan of Blythe Baird's poetry, so when I saw this book on NetGalley I had to request it.

The topics in "If My Body Could Speak" are very emotional and include self love, mental health, sexuality and the authors experience as a rape survivor.

Her poems very really touching and inspiring and they made me think a lot. As a queer person, my favorite poems were "The Lesbian Reevaluates" and "Everything Is Fluid".

I really look forward to reading more of Blythe Baird's poetry!

5/5

It's no secret that I am a sucker for poetry, especially from spoken word artists, and <i>especially</i> especially books from Button Poetry. And Blythe Baird's performances of pieces from this collection, especially <a href="https://youtu.be/16Tb_bZZDv0">"When the Fat Girl Gets Skinny</a>, have been among my favorites for a while. But after Sabrina Benaim's disappointing <i>Depression and Other Magic Tricks</i>, I guess I got a little soured on the whole "collections-by-performers" concept, and I did not expect this entire collection to be this great.

<b>But I was wrong. This book was amazing.</b> I read it in a single sitting. Seriously, even when I needed to brush my teeth, I took my Kindle with me and kept reading. Despite the fact that she is only 22 years old (literally my age?? what??), Baird writes with passion and eloquence that few poets--established or otherwise--manage to achieve. Her writing is not pretentious, but it is also not the all-too-popular "Instagram poetry" that is so popular as of late (Rupi Kaur, I'm looking at you...). The pieces are long enough to feel like fully-developed concepts, but short enough to feel compulsively readable and lend themselves easily to the "one more chapter" phenomenon.

<b>The collection largely focuses on issues of body image, trauma, sexuality, and personal identity.</b> Though the topics are serious, Baird presents them in such a way that they are not overwhelmingly heavy--just raw and honest. From her own sexual assault to coming to terms with the fact that she is a lesbian, from conflicts with her family to her history of disordered eating, she covers a series of themes that are at once intensely personal and resoundingly universal. All of her thoughts are incredibly relevant and timely in a world where women are increasingly under pressure from society and the men around us to be a certain way, act a certain way, and accept terrible things as being "just the way things are."

<b><i>If My Body Could Speak</i> ought to be required reading for all young women today.</b> It is a testament to the strength of the individual and a pointed callout of the problematic society we live in. It is beautiful, personal, readable, and so, so important.

<b>Trigger warnings for eating disorders, sexual assault, homophobia, mental illness, and mention of self-harm.</b>

<i>Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.</i>

I have been watching Blythe Baird's spoken word poetry on Button Poetry's youtube channel for a long time now. I was very excited to read this collection by her. I think one thing that is special about Baird is her delivery of her poems. I wish that I could have seen all of these performed, and the ones I have seen enhanced my reading experience. I felt like I could hear her reading some of these because her delivery is so specific.

This collection of poems could be grouped into poems about eating disorders, poems about assault, and poems about Baird's relationship with her mother. While there are many poems, it often felt like three long poems about these three topics. One thing that I admire greatly about this collection is that Baird's poetry is so personal. She is not afraid to lay her traumas bare, and I felt for her with every line. She is quick to criticize herself and slow to love herself. The lines about embodiment, what it means to have a body, what it means to be seen by others, are some of my favorites. I just wish that there had been more about Baird's relationship with her mother and her sexuality. There were more poems about her eating disorder and her assault, and I wished that these ideas had been connected more.

“If My Body Could Speak” is a poetry collection by Blythe Baird. The poems are about being a woman in today's society, body image and also the youth -specifically young girls. It focuses on some hard topics such as anorexia, rape, and self-love.

First of all, i was surprised to learn that the author is the same age as me (22)! The subjects of these poems are so mature and heavy that you can feel the exhaustion of the author while reading them. And to learn that these hardships were felt so intensely by such a young person goes to show just how important such literature is.

People tend to avoid certain issues because they are seen as “taboo”. However; the more we don’t talk about them, the more they gain power over the younger generation.

Baird talks about body issues, “fat” being used as a characteristic that defines the person and how this affects them; about rape, the psychology of “victims” and where young girls stand in relation to this issue; and most of all, about being a girl in today’s world.

It is mostly written with a slam-poetry technique and sometimes it felt short for me. There were times that the narrative got monotonous and the style felt a bit callow. But overall, the emotions prevailed.

It is brutally honest and sometimes hard to read; but still a necessary literature in my opinion.

Once again I'm a bit contradicted because of modern poetry. In general, I tend to like a bit more old-fashioned poems (I mean in style, like rhymes and verses, not in theme/topics!) at first I thought that this would be the case with this collection, too, but all in all I have to say that it convinced me by the end. These poems are powerful and they all made me feel something. I could relate to so many things mentioned in them, and I love that the poet says what's on her mind and heart. I could feel for her. I think these poems are ones that very young people can understand and relate to, but the poet also shows a more mature side of thinking - because of the topics and life stage I knew she must be young, but I was actually surprised to find out how young she is. I'll be on the look for more work of hers!

This book was provided by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Button Poetry and Netgalley!

"Silly girl. She thinks this is what she wants,
but she does not understand how it will hurt."

If My Body Could Speak is a poetry collection about love, LGBT+, loss, rape and eating disorders. If My Body Could Speak is the first book I read by Blythe Baird and I loved it!

"Looking back, I wonder why survival
was my entertainment of choice."

If My Body Could Speak was such a beautiful and honest collection. I could relate to so many poems and a lot of them had a big impact on me. For example, I’ve never had an eating disorder but I often struggle (d) with food and some of these poems were really relatable and I could really get what Blythe Baird was talking about.

"She would rather take a photo
of me wincing with a boy
than smiling with a girl."

Favourite poems:
Before the Starving
Dress Code
Girl Code 101
Blood-rose
Pocket-sized Feminism
I Don’t Have to Forgive You
The Ghost Who Stars in My Poetry
Class Clown
Too Pissed to Be Sad Anymore
The Way I Was Taught to Love
The Kindest Thing she Almost Did
Smoke
Lipstick
For The Rapists who Called Themselves Feminists
Balancing
The Aesthetic of Rape Culture
To Live in the Body of A Survivor
Relapse
Horoscopes for Self-Doubt

Well, what to say.

I always want to give modern poetry a chance... Unfortunately, it keeps disappointing me. It does not seem or feel like poetry to me.

But when I saw this one I wanted to give it a chance.

The first several poems were good. They did not feel like poems to me. But I enjoyed reading them.

And the comment where the author talks about the feel of water in the empty stomach, I could so much relate, and I could remember the feeling. I expected that the majority of the poems would be about eating disorders. However, only a few were about it. The majority was about being harassed (even raped), bullied and shamed for being a woman. And I must say that the American Dress Code in School seems utterly ridiculous to me. The idea that I would have to kneel down and the principal would measure the hemline? I cannot fathom who thought this is okay.
But overall, I did not like this book of poetry and I had a hard time to finish. Not because of the topic but because it did not create a feeling of understanding.

An up-front, but still quite pretty, collection of poetry confronting eating disorders, sexuality, and rape and rape culture. I really liked the different formats that Blythe Baird used and I thought her poems were very moving.

This collection of poems is astonishing. I'm a fan of Button Poetry in general, but this collection just floored me. If you have dealt with rape, trauma, and/or its aftermath, these poems will speak to you. I related more to Blythe Baird than I have almost any other author out there. She's brave and talented and you should definitely read this book.