Planting Gardens in Graves

R.H. Sin has gained many fans over the last couple of years. His Whiskey, Words, and a Shovel sold out and copies were fetching quite a price. Sin made his name with short poems and used language to make words carry their maximum weight. Since the release of Whiskey, Words, and a Shovel two things have happened. First, there are collections of "poetry" flooding the market that are essentially cliches and platitudes, but nonetheless, have been readers professing love for poetry. This dilutes the work of Sin who actually uses language as a tool. Secondly, on this same note, Sin essentially writes on the same subject in all his books. That being said it does take several books before the writing seems to repeat. This is not bad in itself. It happens and sometimes it is very good. For example, AC/DC put out seventeen albums using the same three cords and was/is one of the most popular bands in rock and roll. Familiar subject matter is not always a problem; it just needs to seem fresh.

I do like that Sin keeps increasing the length of his poems. Also, he can bring new ideas into the mix. This collection works well for the fans of Sin's work and also for a newcomer. For the casual reader who has read one or two of his books with only moderate interest, there is really nothing new for you here. I do hope Sin expands his themes and continues to work longer poems. Like his work or not he certainly did create a market for himself.

Available February 6, 2018

From the author of Whiskey, Words, and a Shovel, comes a new collection of poetry dealing with love, loss, heartbreak, and motivation/inspiration. The poems are short with some increasing in length. The wording is not too flowery or frivolous. They can be short and packed with a lot of thought and meaning. As the first work I have read from r.h. sin, I have to say I was not disappointed.
I did feel that some poems were a bit repetitive as if he just rearranged the words to sound different, but that was not always the case. Some poems were repeats, but felt different in a way.
I try not to read other reviews while conducting my own but I felt like this certain aspect needed some attention. One review mentioned romanticizing suicide.
"I loved you
But heaven loved you more
I needed you
But heaven needed you more
I lost you but gained an angel"
-r.h. sin
I can see why that person felt as if it was about suicide, but to me that wasn't the first thing that popped into my head. I connected it to deaths from forms other than suicide. I thought about my grandmother who died from natural causes. I thought of my cousin who died too soon from surgery complications that left him brain dead. It's all about perspective.
Personally, I did enjoy it and I would consider reading more works by r.h. sin in the future.

This is my first time reading r. h. sin but I’ve heard the name a lot and a co-worker has highly suggested him in the past and she hasn’t led me wrong yet in poetry suggestions. Planting Gardens in Graves is modern poetry at its best. Sin looks at both how relationships can be good but also in the ways that relationships are ugly. I appreciated the approach of not all love is great, not all love is healthy, and sometimes you can do better than what you have. Would definitely recommend to modern poetry fans,

I like Sin’s style of minimalist poems that pack a punch and while this book certainly contained ones I felt strongly about, it also became repetitive. This is better read in multiple short sessions but because I read it in one sitting, a lot of the poems started sounding the same. Sin touched on themes many readers could relate to. There’s love, heartbreak, abuse, feminism, and loneliness to name a few but I’d love to see him explore other themes in the future.

This poetry style is not one of my favorites, mostly due to the preponderance of the minimalist poetry trend recently. I did enjoy this book, and the poems were evocative and held my interest. I have never read this author previously, but I would read more of their work.

I am in a good place in my relationship but I felt empowered that if it ends I am confident I would survive it when I read this book. I have never heard of r.h. Sin before I read this collection of poems… I will buy all his works from now on. And I want the physical ones. They need to be on my shelf. A greater number of the poems in this book are for broken hearts. Even so, some of them can be connected with life in general.Can you please place your trust in me and get a copy of this book? You will enjoy consuming every word in each poem. Just do it.

Insightful! Another emotive collection of poetry! As before, I find that these can as easily describe the heartbreak of love as the shattered belief that white folx see the humanity in people of colour.

R.H Sin has become my favourite instapoet. He has the ability to read and understand women so well. Every line of every poem speaks true, and each line can almost be used as a manifesto for all women. This book is as strong as all of his others.

It was my first time ever reading any r.h Sin work. I am not expert in poems, I have only recently got into the genre, but I consider this to be a great collection of poems. Having said that, it was difficult for me to relate or in some sense understand the pian behind the worlds since I have never been heartbroken, and the great majority of the poems were about heartbreak. The only few that were not I really enjoy and I could see them inspiring me in some way. There are people that do not enjoy those types of poems, so if you are one of those then I do not recommend this book. If yes, the pick this up. The writing is not that complex and hard to understand. The simplicity of it was one of the main reasons I enjoyed it so much. I look forward to reading other works of him and compare them, see which ones I enjoy more, etc.

I feel similarly to this book as I do his others books - kind of kitschy, tumblr/instagram-esque poems. I like this volume better than some of his other books but not as much as the Whiskey Words volumes.

I still prefer the shorter poems to the longer poems, but they start to feel repetitive, all his books/poems are about love, heartbreak, male-feminism, slut-shaming etc. and he skits too far over the line into preachy and annoying more than I'd really like. The second person that pops up in some poems makes it feel like he's telling a woman how to act/feel in some cases - which is like, the opposite of the message he's saying which is ironic. His poems are kind of like horoscopes - general enough that most people can relate if they want to. The poems about family life, single mothers, miscarriages etc. were probably the best of them. The titular poem at the end is one of the best of his poem period.

Still enjoyable if you like these sorts of poetry books, definitely if you like RH Sin, and pretty well written.

While I LOVE the fact that there is a resurgence of poetry because of what is called "instagram poets" there can be a slight disconnect for me due to how small the individual poems can be. Each one needs to be taken in with one glance, with a single east to read instagram post.

I'm a fan, for sure. Most "instagram poets" making waves seem to be female, so a male prespective (and especially a black male perspective) is brilliant.
I will definitely reread his work