I started following the “Poetry is not a luxury” page years ago, and many of the poems in this anthology I’ve read before. Even still, they brought tears to my eyes and made me slow down and savor the ordinary, glorious moments of life just like poetry ought to do.

Spice: none
Language: none
Considerations: The heaviness of grief, deep losses, doubts and questioning
Positives: the beautiful particularities of friendship, gloriously ordinary moments, embracing the unknowns of our journey

This was a really fantastic book! I immediately pre-ordered it while I was still on the first section of this book. The poems were delightful and thought provoking. I appreciated how many different voices were included in this book of poetry and I found a lot of poems hit me in ways I was not expecting. Thank you to the author and publisher for this eARC, I really appreciated the chance to read and review this book early.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this free ARC in exchange for an honest review. Pub date: May 6, 2025

Loved this poetry anthology—for the content and also its organization. While there were endless poems I bookmarked to come back to, I really enjoyed that they were divided into the four seasons. Impressed with how well they were categorized, evoking such strong feelings for each season. It ended perfectly with the current season, conveying the blossoming hope and growth of spring.

This book was a warm cup of coffee on a cold day. I loved how soft and sweet each poem was. How delicate they were, how they felt so specific to each season they were assigned to. I adored falling in love with many new poets and poems and I even made a list of several to find more of their work to read later on. Also, the inclusion of Palestinian poets including Mahmoud Darwish and Mosab Abu Toha was a welcome surprise. They wrote two of my favorite pieces in this entire collection!
All in all, if you're looking for a poetry collection that makes you want to feel alive and content and complete, I highly recommend Poetry Is not a Luxury!

As a longtime follower of the poetryisnotaluxury Instagram account, and a diehard poetry lover, I was excited to get my hands on a copy of this book. I loved the presentation of the poems being divided by seasons. It feels like a digestible way for people to approach this collection, especially if you're not super well-versed in the world of poems.

Each poem and each season gave me something different and even the poems that I've known and loved for many years seemed to come alive again for me, as if I was meeting them for the first time. This would make a great gift for the poetry lover in your life. I can easily see this book becoming a literary companion, with dogeared pages and highlights aplenty. if you're even remotely into poetry, you should read this collection.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a nicely-curated collection of poetry with many poets that I had never read before. Structured into seasons, each poem does carry those sensory experiences that fit their season.

However, reading all of these so close together is definitely not the way to read this collection, because so many of them just weren't standing out. I'm already not a big fan of poems that feel like just a thought or two chopped into shorter sentences, sometimes with funky layout, and there's many of them in here. Maybe three or four poems really stood out to me, spoke to a truth that made me finally, properly connect.

Still, I liked this. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an arc in return for my honest review.

Beautiful. I follow this author’s account on Instagram and it’s the place I go to discover poets. I’ve been saving my favorite posts for years, so the idea of a compilation presented on a platter like this is brilliant. I can’t wait to buy my own copy that I can mark up and revisit through the years.

Reviewing a poetry collection feels almost impossible because of how it invokes feelings, but this collection is arranged excellently. Starting with the Summer so the reader ends in the spring was a great choice and leaves them with a feeling of hope and renewal. The poems were so perfectly selected that if you opened to a random page you could tell what season it was. The poems chosen also felt very accessible. Anyone could read this and find a poem that connects to them. This is the perfect poetry collection for those who love poetry or hoping to explore the genre.
Thank you Netgalley and Atria for the ARC!

Poetry Is Not A Luxury:⁣
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Thank you so much @washingtonsquarepress @atriabooks #AtriaPartner for my gifted copies.⁣
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I realized I had quite a few poetry books come in the past few weeks, and I had to share.⁣
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Poetry is Not a Luxury is such a stunning collection of poems for the season. I read one day for the season I was in (Spring) and just felt this big sigh and weight releasing from my shoulders as I read them. I was able to truly savor the words and really enjoyed what was being brought.⁣
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I did read a few Winter ones when Georgia decided it wanted to hit its last cold snap. Those made me want to stay under a plush blanket with a fire roaring. ⁣
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It’s funny, I would take a picture of a Spring poem if it stuck with me. I then wanted to re-read and snap a pic of ones I really liked. They were duplicates of what I already took.⁣
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I just feel like when the world feels heavy, poetry really finds the words when you can’t. Poetry is Not A Luxury is just that.⁣
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Out May 6th, I can’t wait for y’all to read it.

I’ve been a long time follower of the Poetry is not a Luxury page on Instagram. I believe I began following in 2020 when it felt most necessary to me to surround myself with poetry. That page was and still is a balm to my soul. Every day I open the app and am greeted with what my heart didn’t know it needed. This collection is something so incredibly special and vital— it’s expertly pieced together with a little something for all walks of life. When I heard about this collection, I knew it would be what I need at this very time of its publication. I was right. Thank you so much for allowing me an early read!

Didn’t know what to expect but I do love a poetry collection and so I loved these. Loved having a collection by different authors to learn new work to seek out. The poems split by season really did feel seasonally appropriate and I loved ending in Spring, today, March 31.

This is a fantastic poetry collection! My particular favorite section was Summer, but they're all so beautifully curated that the entire piece is a perfect read. I think both longtime poetry fans and newcomers to the medium will find ways to interact with the collection - it's accessible to a broader audience without sacrificing the more specific themes and rhythms of a collection.

I will be picking up a hard copy for my collection on release day, that's for sure!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I’ve followed Poetry Is Not a Luxury on Instagram for a long time and have always loved the way it highlights poetry as something essential and alive. This anthology captures that same spirit, offering poems for every season of life—joy, grief, love, change. It’s not a book you read cover to cover but one to keep close, flipping through when you need the right words for a moment. A perfect gift or coffee table book, beautifully curated and full of poetry that feels like a companion through all of life’s ups and downs.

This collection is so special. Loved it. One I would love to have on my shelf.
Thank you netgalley for the ARC!