Note to the publisher: I appreciate your making this title available to me for review. I don't think you want me to publish my thoughts on this title. I was generally unimpressed. The content of many of the poems felt facile, and I didn't find any interesting interplay between the style and the content. I'm afraid the material did not help me figure out what life is about,

Jim Collins
Cochranville PA
April 30, 2023

Mr. Bond's poetry is not the kind that can be used to teach students the elements of poetry. It is also not the kind of poetry I enjoy. I enjoy inspirational poetry on topics such as nature, beauty, and love, and using meter, rhyme, and rhythm, such as sonnets, and villanelles. If one enjoys freeverse and subjective poetry, this author has a highly developed vocabulary and an admirable command of the language.

Joy didn't hit home for me. The formatting was done poorly and trying to discern between the poems was exhausting at times.

It was an honor to read Joy by Mike Bond. I don't fancy myself literate in poetry. But with this book, "Thank You". It was life, love and just many emotion written into it. I can sense the author was mixture of all true life events into this and it was an amazing read. Definitely worth the read and hidden gem.

Joy is a compilation of short poems about love, joy, nature, and a little bit of everything in between.

Most of the poems fell short for me - the poems seemed to barely scratch the surface. Some poems didn’t need more than a few words to make their point, but their point was shallow.

Rating it 3 stars because poetry is one of those things that might not work for me, but others might enjoy.

Thank you to Big City Books and NetGalley for the book!

The very first poem in this collection captured my heart. “Burgundy” felt wise and profound. This was true for many of the works in this collection. Who wouldn’t love the words “To see your face across a room delights my heart…To hold your hand heats my soul with love.” Some are sadder, as for example, the poem titled Gray Clouds.

What all of the poems in this collection share is their approachability (maybe not a real word but the concept I want). These are works that one may contemplate but that can be understood. I will be dipping in and out of this book for a while.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Big City Press for this title. All opinions are my own.

This title was published in November 2022.

I really enjoyed the poems in this book, I reread a few because they were powerful and made you sit and think about it before continuing.

Very well written and meaningful poems. Easy to read and relatable . The only advice I would have is for the final version to be more appealing on the ebook format. Was very plain and some poems looked like they ran together

This is a very nice poetry book which covers many topics and emotions. Mike Bond is adept creating imagery, and making people think. I enjoy reading poetry as a break from novels and non-fiction. This collection makes me want to read his other book of poems too.

My thanks to Big City Press and NetGalley for permitting me access to a digital copy of this collection.

I gave this a two out if five stars. This poetry exhausted me, it made me tired as I read. It was hard to finish this book. It wasn’t very memorable, I don’t remember a thing about it.

This is a brilliant collection of poetry. Mike Bond does a great job illustrating the tension and beauty of life. I particularly like being able to pick up a book of poems and reading a few. My favorites were ‘To See Your Face’ and ‘The Divine’. Given how much I enjoyed this collection, I’ll likely pick up Bond’s previous collection ‘The Drum That Beats Within Us’.

Thank you to Netgally and the publisher for providing access to a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Perfect read to get out of a reading slump!
Each poem, despite short-quick reads, they remained powerful, relatable and enlightening.

Human connection, nature, emotion, appreciation of what you have. Existential thoughts, religion, life. Your soul, time, grief. Change, politics, humans.

My favorite poems:
Easy
Own
Let the past go

Lots of thought provoking lines! There was a particularly good balance between long and short poems.

What a lovely collection of short poems that are easy to digest and thought-provoking. I especially loved the poems about love; they were so sweet.

Content warning: occasional strong language

Such a beautiful book of beautiful words! I blew through this! Loved “Let Us All”, “To See Your Face” and “We Are Not Here”
Highly recommend if you love poetry!