This was a very beautiful and reflective poetry collection that is rooted in the author's Southwest home landscape through connection to the natural world and its wisdom. I was moved by the ways the poems connected to one another to tell of the passage of time, both across a year and through memory to the most important events in the author's life, both recent and formative, joyful and grief-stricken. The poems are full of powerful imagery and metaphor, as well as the use of formatting to create timing and word pictures on the page. The theme of death and grief was especially strong, both on a personal scale and in the distant timeless renewal of the natural world. These were the poems that stayed with me the most. I would recommend the collection to poetry readers who seek a reflective, emotional tone and evocative natural imagery.

Thank you to the University of Nevada Press and Netgalley for providing a free Advanced Readers Copy of this book for review.

This did not coennect with me at all, I'm sad to say. The formatting on the Kindle was also terrible. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the chance to read this book.

Thank you Netgalley and university of Nevada press for the ARC in exchange of an honest review.


Far country by Kyce Bello was a very different set of poems. There were nature poems which in general I enjoy but no matter how much I tried to read and enjoy this set of poems, I could not. This set of poems wasn't for me.

This was an interesting collection of poems, and while i did enjoy the read, I don't think I would revisit it again. I'm not sure if some of the way the poems were written didn't translate well due to it being an E-ARC, but I found myself looking at formatting more and I feel like it hurt the collection. There was some repetitiveness, but I feel like that highlighted what Bello was trying to discuss rather than hurt it. Ultimately, I just felt like something was missing, but what that was I couldn't tell you?

Esta es una colección que invita a la reflexión sobre el mundo natural, el cambio climático y las mentalidades centradas en la comunidad. No obstante, encontré que ciertos poemas resultaban algo repetitivos; no estoy del todo segura si esto se debe a los temas limitados que explora o al lenguaje utilizado. A pesar de su simplicidad, algunos de los poemas me parecieron fáciles de olvidar.

Kyce Bello is a clinical herbalist and a registered nurse, and those two personas manifest and collide beautifully in this collection. Her poems speak of motherhood, birth, pain, and healing, but with wild and natural imagery of plants, animals, seasons, and quiet. She has a clear connectedness to the rhythms of the natural world. The feeling of this collection is solitude and observance: the power of quietly listening to what surrounds you and trying to learn from the infinite wisdom of how the world changes, heals, and changes again. Being from the Southwest, the reverence for Ponderosa pines, Sandhill cranes, snakebroom, saltbush - it all makes me feel at home. A gorgeous collection.

This was an interesting poetry collection reflecting on the natural world, climate change, and community-minded mentalities. I found some poems more impactful than others, but there are multiple from this collection that will stick with me. I enjoyed the poet's structure and prose, but found that some poems felt a bit repetitive. I'm not entirely sure if this is due to the more limited themes explored, or due to the language used. Regardless, I enjoyed my time with this one and certainly think it will appeal to others!

Fantastic work. Every poem exudes life. The poet has definitely captured the spirit of her surroundings.