As someone who has made the vow not to have children to due the world I would be raising them in, “no swaddle” by Mackenzie kozak was a perfect poetry collection for me and my thoughts and feelings, I think it’s good to reevaluate myself, hence why I thought of picking this up.

The poems flow well between and within one another, though sonnets and verse remain unnamed. This element allows for introspection within the work and critical mind to decipher. This work was well written and I look forward to future work of the author.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

How I adore Ms. Kozak’s poetic gifts.

I see myself in these pages. I have never been pregnant, nor have I attempted to be with child. Yet, I can see myself on my knees, face above the bowl. I can feel the pain of loss and wanting.

I think it’s even clearer for me, than some of these other reviewers, because I am so torn on the concept of motherhood. For precisely this reason: pain, disappointment, all the lies fed to those who have yet to reproduce from those who have accomplished it.

Pregnancy is propaganda. That’s how I feel in this day & age. It’s all over Instagram. My mother wants it from me. My boyfriend’s mother, kindergarten teacher and more softly, also wishes for my child. Everyone wants to hold this unborn concept in their hands, against their chests. But what of me and my fears, my destruction?

I worry about mental health, I worry about the politics of it all. I worry about my security in relationships when shit hits the fan. And I read the words in this body of poetry, and my heart goes out to it. To their author. To every woman who has wanted with certainty, in equal measure to my uncertainty. Who feels as if their body has failed them.

I know how it feels to be failed by the physical self & I haven’t brought another life into the equation. Can I even handle it?

Why must we survive these expectations?

Thank you #NetGalley for a digital ARC. I would love to own a copy of this poetry collection once it is published.

This hit me very hard. I'm in exactly that place that the poems talks about. Having children or not? This is high literature!

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the eArc in exchange for my honest opinion.

An extremely gutwretching colection of poems about whether or not to bear children. It had indeed some poems that I enjoyed, but personally I just felt really disconnected to the poems. It is a really interesting and probably more perdobal and profound if you find yourself in this situation, but I just felt like something was missing

I was so excited to read no swaddle. From the summary alone, I truly thought this book was meant for me. However, after finishing the collection, I can't shake the feeling that I somehow missed the point of most of it.

To my understanding, this release is a collection of Kozak’s previously published poems and sonnets, curated and reordered to tell a cohesive story about the struggle of deciding whether to become a mother.

There are some truly breathtaking pieces in this collection. I was beyond impressed with how seamlessly each poem flowed into the next, creating a beautifully paced reading experience, while honoring the overall theme. A few pieces really stuck with me in that beautiful and unique way that only poetry can.

And yet, something was missing. As previously mentioned, only a few pieces really clicked with me, and I found myself searching for something more. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but some vital essence of the book just didn’t resonate with me the way I expected it to. Some of the works were extremely abstract and jarring in a way that made me wonder if I had understood any of it at all, leaving me feeling disconnected from the collection as a whole. While I admire Kozak's beautiful writing and obvious talent in this genre, I ultimately walked away feeling a little disappointed.

Two and a half stars.

*3.5 stars*

no swaddle is a collection of sonnets that ruminates on the question of whether or not to have children. It’s a timely collection, and one that approaches the subject from many angles.

There are several elements of this work that I appreciate. The fact that the sonnets are unnamed and thematically related creates quite an immersive reading experience. The poems flow right into each other and can end up feeling very intertwined in places. This helped me sit with the themes more, instead of viewing each poem in isolation, and I enjoyed consuming the collection in that way.

I also thought the use of language struck the right balance for my personal taste between being complex enough to be interesting without feeling unapproachable. Still, there is something missing for me from this collection that is creating a disconnect, and I’m not even sure what. It’s just part of that subjective experience with poetry when something “clicks” with you, and for whatever reason, these poems haven’t been lingering with me in my mind after I have stepped away from them. I just hoped they would have more of an emotional impact on me.

Overall, I felt like this was a cohesive collection with several beautiful poems. I think there will be a lot of people who resonate with this collection, especially if the topic is one you are interested in or have been reflecting on. Mackenzie Kozak is clearly a skilled poet, and I will definitely be on the lookout for more of her work in the future.