I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley!

While the summary gives little information on what this book is truly about, I did a little research into who "Michael Lee" was prior to reading.
The Only Worlds We Know is a poetry based memoir that truly sticks in your brain and heart. His words are powerful and raw. His poetry tells stories and brings you into a world all his own.

Do yourself a favor and read this book.

I first heard of Michael Lee through Button Poetry, specifically the beautiful cinematic rendition of his poem 'Pass On', which dealt with the grief of his friend Stephen's murder. This poem (along with Neil Hilborn's OCD) became the bedrock of me venturing into spoken word poetry and establishing a community in my city.

I snatched this ARC up as soon as I found it on NetGalley.

It took me a surprisingly long time to get through, partly because a lot of the pieces didn't resonate, and partly because there was a lot of grief and death that I didn't want to process in one sitting. Stephen makes cameos here and there, which is expected and represents a passing milestone that I can recognise. Poetry is how we make sense of a senseless world, no?

Here's a snippet of Lee digging through the mess and finding lines:

I curse archeologists
for their basic tools telling us
basic things.

Sometimes I think scientists are lazy. I too
could dig a heart out of a chest,
but what do any of them know

about pulling the history from a body
without killing it?

This eARC was courtesy of NetGalley.

This type of book memoir isn't my favorite I thought it being written in poetry I would have liked it more but I really didn't. It was a bit disappointing.

*I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

I first met Michael Lee through one of his poems, titled “Pass On”, available on Button Poetry’s channel. The piece —arranged in a complex numbering of the effects of grief— tackled death, and the anger and confusion of missing someone that is gone. It was a touching, beautiful poem in which pain morphed into hope, into learning to let go. Instantly, I became a fan, and I often found myself quoting “Pass On”, going back to Lee’s words whenever old sorrows threatened to drown: “Death does not come when a body is too exhausted to live. / Death comes, because the brilliance inside us can only be contained for so long”.

It goes without saying, then, that when I saw Lee’s debut on NetGalley’s shelves, I requested it immediately. I thought that, like I do most poetry books, I would read it in a few hours —a few days, at most. Expectations are often mistaken and, instead, I found myself reading slowly, and spending more than a month between the book’s pages.

At first, I couldn’t pinpoint why; poetry is a genre I gulp, but Lee’s words stayed on my tongue, clinging, as the words went down my throat letter by agonizing letter. I hesitated at the end of each page, dismayed, unsure, needing a pause. After a while, after weeks, I understood. Beyond Death —whom I’ve only faced through biology’s sudden failings, ugly, but without culprits—, I couldn’t connect to the subject matter of many of the poems in this book. Alcoholism has always been a distant specter, haunting other grounds; in adulthood, I haven’t lost close friends and relatives to controlled substances, or suicide, or senseless violence. That anger, that grief, is alien. Feeling privileged, I found myself jarred by the disconnection, so different from what “Pass On” evoked in me years before. I expected to connect immediately to Lee’s words; I didn’t.

Often, we say that books take us to new worlds, to distant lands across time and space. Poetry is as much about finding oneself reflected in it, as it is about glimpsing distant experiences. The disconnection slowed my reading, but the words —once swallowed— simmered and toppled over, demanding reactions and thoughts, and I couldn’t stop thinking. Even now, as I write this review, I keep going over the lines I highlighted, turning them like one does a dice, inspecting their arrangements in new lights.

When, at last, I started connecting with scattered pieces across the book —in particular, The Study of Doors and Knowing, and Just Yesterday—, the whole became stronger. Now, I could appreciate Lee’s work, with and without the emotional connection. And he’s a hard-hitting, fantastic wordsmith.

“The Only Words We Know” is a solid debut, written with the sort of crude honesty that crisscrosses over one’s heart. Visceral. Sincere. Sharp. Its imagery, which never feels superficial, is refreshing, provocative sans fanfare. And there’s plenty of imaginative pieces, too; Self-Erasure as Applied to My Memory, for example, which is repeated a few times, with more words erased from the poem in each consecutive iteration. What is more, each poem works on its own, but taken together, the self-erasure becomes real, literal, and the effect is strikingly poignant.

If these are the only words he knows, Lee uses them very well. I’ll share some of my favorites:

“For my final wish, another
final wish. The end
is a kind of current.
You could light
a whole city
on what is gone.”

“There are still, in the end, atoms shivering
between us. In this way none of us ever
really touch, and the blade hovers there
forever, and my hand never slides
across his casket or holds the morning
paper hot with his name. Even now
I feel his face warm against mine…”

“My math teacher steps
toward the blackboard proving
that if you continue to halve
a distance between two points
you will never reach the end.”

“Eventually, everything that can look will look
away, and our memory, which is a kind of faith,
will be unable to carry even itself.”

I don’t think this book is for everyone, and I would advise particular caution to those triggered by mentions of drug abuse, self-harm, alcoholism and suicidal thoughts. But I don’t think any book is for everyone and, without hesitation, I recommend this debut to all fans of spoken poetry and of Button’s previous books. Maybe it won’t be what they expected, like it wasn’t for me, but that’s an adventure worth undertaking, too!

The Only Worlds We Know by Michael Lee - Book Review

The Only Worlds We Know by Michael Lee is a small book of poems. The poems talk about pain, loss, grief, addiction and people we love. I felt that the poems are very intense. There were a little loud and on the darker side but certain lines in the poems make you pause and re-read to understand the depth. There is a honesty in thee author's words that exume an out of the world philosophy.

The pain in the poems hits the reader hard. It's short but very strong. This book took me by surprise. Definitely a remarkable debut by the author Michael Lee!

I really love these poetry books, it means the world to ever have a chance to read this electronic ARC :) recommended!!

What a beautiful debut -- Such a mesmerising and heartbreaking collection of poetry.
It tackles sensitive topics like sobriety so I couldn't help but picture Mr Sherlock Holmes writing some of the poems and proses. Although brutally honest, the writing truly galvanised me.
Thank you, Button Poetry and Netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

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This one is more hard hitting than I ever thought it would be.
This collection of poems deals with death, grief mostly and the lines just reach your heart and mind with equal gusto and stay there.

The author talks about violence, the deaths of the people he used to know and his feelings about such issues.
My favourite turns out to be the following one :
''The rain has begun to fall, if I'm lucky
the fire will go out and you will follow, cross
my mind for a final time or at least take me

with you. The only way through is through.
If love is a city two people make then it is
also a place that has no use when its people leave,

though here I am tending to its dust. Nothing moves
but could. Even the city's single bird - birthed by our laughter- sings a single note and that one note hangs permanently in the air.'

I just love it!

I will definitely look forward to more of the upcoming collections by this author.

Thanks #NetGalley for the book #TheOnlyWorldsWeKnow

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC of this book. This is by far my favorite book of poetry I have read this year. It takes a look at drug abuse, sobriety, suicide, death. A lot of dark topics wrote about in a very deep, meaningful way. This poet is terrific and I truly hope to read by this brilliant mind.

I keep saying that Button poetry ought to give me some of the juice they're sipping because very collection I read from them moves me, and this one, this one stopped me right in my tracks.
Ever asked yourself 'how do I talk about this topic without offending someone?' Read this.
Ever asked yourself, 'what's it like standing still in darkness?' Read this.
Ever asked yourself, 'what does it feel like to be uncertain, afraid, hopeful, weary, loved, in-love, just living?' Read this.
If you've never asked yourself those three questions, I've got one for you: Are you human or a robot?
Thanks Netgalley for the eARC.

Lee is certainly a incredibly gifted writer. Throughout The Only Worlds We Know, Lee tackles some hard-hitting subject matter in an incredibly honest, heartfelt, and raw manner.

The poet has a wonderful command of language. The poems within this collection are both memorable and devastating. Will check out more of the poet's work in the future.

With thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the arc.

The Only Worlds We Know by author Michael Lee is outstanding poetry done in a lovely manner! I definitely recommend this one!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Michael Lee writes emotional poetry with a dark edge at times. Lots of well-written verses here, creative and memorable.

A writer of poems just wants their voice to be heard.

Michael Lee is a talented writer and performer of his words; a poet who can express himself and engage an audience.

Button Poetry have championed a number of poets and The Only Words We Know is a collection of Lee’s poems brought together in one publication for the first time.

He is a clever writer whose emotional expression is in your face; an octave above angry more akin to rage. Yet it doesn’t spill out in an incomprehensible tirade of violent rhetoric but in a controlled outburst of conviction and spirit.
Michael Lee is also a clever wordsmith as well as a weaver of emotional nuance as seen in some of his work here. To this end I commend ‘The Law of Halves as Applied to the Blade’ and ‘The Study of Words and Heaven’ (elsewhere titled “remember”).
I also enjoyed the disappearing poem. Firstly, it was ‘Self-Erasure’ “ ......a block of salt worn by rain, drop by drop.” Then it became ‘ Erasure ‘ with missing words and just “worn by rain.” And finally ‘Eras e’ far fewer words still, but a viable poem nonetheless.
I liked ‘Tapestry in Five Parts’ “a rusted plow the color of embers and clay.”
Other instantly gripping poems would include ‘Out There’ ‘Row’ ‘The Pill’ and ‘Leaving’.

The poet’s voice is not just contained in this book-as he can be seen in videos reading his poems across the Internet.

Poetry isn’t initially for everyone but the more you read or listen to, the wider your appreciation.

Into the mix I would want to throw Michael Lee’s work.
With his words he has something to say.