I liked this book of poetry. It really makes you think about what the author is trying to say. Sometimes you will get it right away other times you have to put the book down and really think. Its a great book and would recommend it to everyone who loves poetry.

I received a A free copy of the book and is voluntarily writing a review

Firstly I enjoyed this poetry book and it was really well written. Reading poetry is always a strange experience for me because it can be really well written but I will not relate to the poem so not much of an emotional connection. Or it could be less well written but I will have an emotional connection to some of the poem. In this case, it is more of example 1. However, it seems really promising for a first poetry collection, and I would love to read more of Reed Smith's poems. It may also be that despite my interest in poetry, I don't have a long experience reading them so I don't understand well enough the meaning behind each poem.

The main critique I have now is more on the book as an ebook than the content of the book. Reading poetry on an e-reader is not the best way to consume poetry (in my opinion). Poems are written with a certain form (number of words in a line, x paragraph ...) and this is well displayed in a physical format. Being able to change the font size changes that. One thing that can help ( and I have already seen that in some poetry books I have read on my Kindle like "deaf republic" by Ilya Kaminsky) is when the publisher writes at the beginning of the book which font size is the most accurate to the paper version to have the better reading experience possible of the author's work.

That being said, thank you to NetGalley for an e-ARC of this poetry book in exchange for a review.

I think this poetry collection is just not for me. I read about a quarter into it, but I didn't really understand any of the poems. I'm sure others will enjoy it as there are plenty of positive reviews, but it was just a bit too much for me to comprehend.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC

Beautiful but burdened collection on hope for a better world, for hunger & types of love and longing not too far from our reaching. I’ll be returning to these poems over and over! Thank you for the opportunity to read this early!

A beautiful collection of poetry with a strong sense of place and rooting in nature and the world around us. Lyrical nature writing at its best, with a focus on not just our natural ecological systems, but our social ones as well.
Stand-out poems to me included;
- Fall in the Conejos
- Recurrences
- Stone Figures
- Resuscitation

This book of poems had some very beautiful writing, and I really enjoy the way Smith uses enjambment. I also really liked the pacing and line breaks. The poems were a bit longer than I personally prefer, but overall I think this was a very solid debut collection.

I recommend these poems to people that are afraid to read poems or are feeling intimidated by them. I feel like this author has a way to writing do beautifully and also so challenging, it makes you stop for a bit and just digest what you’ve read.
I’ve read this in one sitting, it was really that good.

My first time engaging with Smith’s work and I can honestly say it won’t be the last. It was transformative and transportive at the same time.

I flew through this collection of poems.

I found Reed Smith's collection to be one where I would read, and stop and put the poem down and sit with it for some time. I'd recommend this to anyone, especially those looking for new voices in poetry.

A debut author, Reed Smith digs into conservationalist ideals with his new poetry collection. Smith uses his poems to have humanity question its place in not only earth and nature, but our self built social structure as well.