The Day Is Ready for You

The Day is Ready for You is a collection of poems that speak on love, resilience, and finding your self worth. while some of the poems resonated with me I did find that I wasn't in love with the author's style. Some of the poems just didn't flow for me as well as others. I do love the topics that she touched on throughout the book. There are some poems that I bookmarked that I definitely want to revisit.

I enjoy reading poetry; slowing down and letting the words and images tumble over me, catching a few, slipping them in my pocket to admire again later, letting others slide by; new thoughts brought to light or old ones revisited in different ways; always an experience.

Alison Malee is good at painting pictures with her words; pictures that are expressive and emotional, as well as her quiet observations on life. I enjoyed this book, marking favorite poems (we are and we are not; understanding; exhales; fits; only; so very; but it was worth it;) and highlighting favorite passages:
"but sometimes the only thing you can do is hold on with your little, stubborn heart and have faith"
"i want to be the one to keep you."
"i will tell you again and again: in some small way, everything matters."
"always, as the day ends, i am wearing some
kind of love from someone. someone who has loved
or still loves or may one day love me.

even as i sleep i am trying on new moments. it all fits."

Many thanks to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for allowing me to read an e-ARC of this book

The Day Is Ready for You

by Alison Malee

Andrews McMeel Publishing

Poetry

Pub Date 15 May 2018

I am reviewing a copy of The Day Is Ready For You through Andrew Mcmeel Publishing and Netgalley:

The Day Is Ready For You is a collection of poetry and prose that is beautifully weaved together. It deals with everything from the gritty pieces of the past from the light that shines through. This poetry deals with everything from love, to desire.

This collection of poetry is a beautiful tribute to life, to love and even to the hardships that help us form who we become.

I give The Day Is Ready For You I am five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

What a beautiful book of poetry! When I read it, I kept thinking about how distilled yet how expressive the poet is! She can convey in 2 words what it would take me pages to express! What talent! I loved that these poems took me through a range of emotions and ultimately left me feeling uplifted and hopeful.

3.75 stars
Some of the poems in this poetry book I really enjoyed and yet others didn't touch or sympathize with me, but that's totally normal that I don't like all the poems in the book. However, the writing style and how she forms the sentences to poems and makes these accurate statements/observations about life, love and resilience are made beautifully. I also like that it's not only poems with just two or three lines but also longer ones really getting you to think about these topics.

I  recieved a free digital copy of this book from Netgalley for an honest review.

This cover is what drew me to the book initially.

I'm not the biggest lover of poetry, so take my review as you will. This wasn't really my style of poetry, but the images created were lovely. And like most poetry books, this book has hit or miss poems. I definitely have a few people in my life that would enjoy this book.

I am always hesitant to review poetry because it seems like such a personal expression of art to me. However, as this is what this website is built for I'll try my hardest.

The author gave a raw look into the intricacies of life and I found myself enjoying the read. I definitely preferred the shorter poems, but that might be a personal preference. I think there is a certain skill in using fewer words to pack a powerful punch.

My favourite poem from this collection was 'learn'. You probably aren't surprised to hear it was a shorter verse. It was one of those poems that's thought-provoking and leaves you reeling for a bit.

Overall, an enjoyable experience. I would reccommend it to those who want an emotional turmoil kind of read.

Sometimes, you get to books in a pretty complicated way. For The Day Is Ready For You, for example, I found it because I really like Amanda Lovelace's poetry collection (review tpshito, review twdbito). Her husband, Cyrus Parker, is also a poet - I haven't gotten to his work yet, but from what I've seen of it, I feel like I would probably like it a lot as well. And Cyrus recommended, recently, the work of Alison Malee which was now available on Netgalley for reviewing. Long story short: I was interested, I got it, I read it - and now I'm reviewing it :)



The book
"I will tell you
again and again:
in some small way,
everything matters.

The Day Is Ready for You is a prose and poetry collection weaving together the fractured, gritty pieces of the past, and the light that can break through an open window if you let it.

This is the first book of a two-book series about grace, heartbreak, and breathing freely."

When I first read about this book, it was described as a poetry collection that is actually somewhere between poetry and prose, and that's basically exactly what this book was. The book is divided into three sections that, while similar, all have a slightly different subject. All have as a recurring theme the concepts of love and confidence, albeit with a different accent.The first two sections, "unmovable things" and "a restless pause", probably spoke to me more than the third one, "prayers like exhales".

The opinion
Modern poetry seems to have a very clear aesthetic in that aspect that it leans closer to prose. The focus is, unlike the epic poems from the greeks or even the classic "rhymes" that we often think of when we hear "poetry". The accent in modern poetry is usually more so on the poetic use of language and punctuation.

so when i tell you i am drowning, i mean that, today, the loss sits on my chest less like a paperweight and more like air turned carbon monoxide without warning.

Alison Malee takes that a bit further, actually, and seems to be constantly balancing on the very edge between prose and poetry, verging sometimes more so in the one or the other, but never losing sight of the  overall tone. If you had to pin it down, you could probably say the author writes prose but using poetic meanings. Or she writes poetry, but uses prose to express that. Basically: if you want, you could probably read most poems from The Day Is Ready For You out loud and not sound too weird.

As I mentioned above, the first two sections spoke to me more than the last did, probably. That being said, maybe my favourite poem from the entire collection was part of the third section:

what witchcraft it is
that the sun
rises every morning
and does not ask
if it is time,
or if the sky is ready,
or if she has permission
to burn and
burn wildly.

what a treacherous thing,
this knowing your power.
this recognizing your worth.

Quite frankly, I could go on giving you sections I highlighted, or particular quotes I really loved. Even when the themes of certain poems spoke to me less, I could not help but appreciate the way Alison Malee manages to use double entendre and at the same time make herself crystal clear.

The rating: 3.75
I think I had the bad luck of reading The Day is Ready For You right after I finished The Witch Doesn't Burn In This One, which hit me right in the feels. In comparison, The Day Is Ready For You, seemed to me slightly less powerful. That is not to say I did not 100% enjoy reading this. This collection is only the first in a two-part series, and I'm really looking forward to reading the next part as well. The author's writing is pretty amazing already, I cannot wait to see what she does in her next work.

-Saar

P.S. One more quote for the road:

limitations

everything begins before you tell it to.

The Day is Ready for You is a poetry and prose collection about heartbreak, life and love. It is described as 'weaving together the fractured, gritty pieces of the past, and the light that can break through an open window if you let it.' and I think it is a beautiful collection where the words paint emotional and expressive pictures.

This was an enjoyable collection. It has that style that many contemporary poets do, thinking specifically of a mix between Rupi Kaur and the brief, casual lyricism of Tyler Knott Gregson. Really beautiful; I didn't notice that much variety of terms of subject, most of it was emotion-related, but this didn't take away from the fact that I did enjoy reading the pieces.

4.5 stars

I enjoy modern poetry. However I did not like Milk and Honey,. This book is thousand times better!!!
Like other poetry book I have read, there are some poems in this book that didn't connect with me. And I guess it's normal in Poetry :) Thankfully, there are more poetry that I really really love in this book. I loveeeee her writing style. How she knit everything everybody word together perfectly.
I feel encourage, calm, and also hopeful after reading this book!

If you want to try reading modern poetry, you can never go wrong with this one ❤️

"worth
what witchcraft it is
that the sun
rises every morning
and does not ask
if it is time,
or if the sky is ready,
or if she has permission
to burn and
burn wildly.

what a treacherous thing,
this knowing
your power.
this recognizing
your worth."

This was pretty good! While I had a hard time connecting with many of them, I ended up really liking the third part of this book, which was called "prayers like exhales." There were a few pieces that I really loved from that section.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to get a copy of this!

I recently read The Day Is Ready for You by Alison Malee. This delightful collection of poetry is fresh, sharp and fiery. Emotion sings from every page. Sometimes they are angry, at others singing a tender love song. Sometimes full of everyday life and then they soar into possibility. Sometimes all in the same poem.

Most of the poems' subjects focus on relationships: all the highs and lows and newness and mundane. Others have to do with being a woman or how life seems from her perspective. She has a definite rhythm and voice that distills life in a perspicacious manner all her own.

Get this book, poetry people! Get it if you don't think you're a poetry person. I highly recommend it.

*I received an e-copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest and fair review.

Fuelled through the pain and joy of love, anger, longing and dreaming, this book of poetry is another great one to be looking out for. Perfect for break-up's longing for unrequited love and with varying length of poems inside, there's something relatable for everyone within this collection.



Anyone can take something from this collection, even if it's just that we are constantly learning and changing throughout our lives.



Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

I really enjoyed The Day Is Ready for You and look forward to reading more of Alison Malee's work. I could relate to many of her poems and some of them really put into words the things I've been feeling and dealing with lately. It's wonderful when you can make such a connection to the thoughts and feelings of others expressed through poetry.

The Day Is Ready for You is a prose and poetry collection about life, heartbreak and breathing freely.

I liked The Day Is Ready for You because some of the poems and prose were really beautiful. It’s not my favourite poetry and prose collection because I couldn’t connect to all the poems. I really like that there were romantic poems and feminist poems, those were definitely the best poems in this collection.

My favourite poems:
never
obvious
unwanted
nerves
insistent
learn
pressure
morning
above all
told you
keeping
but it is worth it

Kraftvolle Bildsprache und viel Gefühl finden sich in diesem Band wieder. Die Gedichte kommen in unterschiedlicher Länge daher und laden ein, um über das Leben, den Augenblick und so vieles mehr zu reflektieren.

The cover of The Day Is Ready for You caught my eye and when I saw it was published by Andrews McMeel (one of my favorites), I knew I had to read this book.

This is a lovely collection of poetry by Alison Malee that showcases her gift for stringing together words mindfully. Most of the poems center around love, both present and lost. The majority of the poems are less than a page long, which kept me reading along ("just one more"). I got through the book quickly, but definitely paused to savor certain poems or phrases. By the end, I had bookmarked a dozen poems -- including Citrus, Worth, and All at Once -- as the ones that had spoken to me most. I anticipate revisiting this book in the future.

I recommend this book for poetry lovers, especially fans of Amanda Lovelace or Lang Leav. And if you love beautiful covers, be sure to get the print version to adorn your shelf.

*arc provided by netgalley*

it took me a while to get through this but i think i just wanted to savour it as much as possible. coming back to it a few times rather than devouring it in one sitting was great for me because every time i got around to reading a portion of it, it brightened my day. these poems were so precise and lively. i loved reading about this poet's experiences with relationships. there is something special about how the author uses "we" in her work, like there is truly a collaborative force between the storyteller and the reader- it made for a really intimate reading experience. the writing is so inspirational to me as a poet and i know that this collection will stay in my head for a while and it even gave me fuel to work on my own writing.

I absolutely loved so much about these poems. Beautifully written, captivating, emotional, and so many wow factors. This truly had a passionate spark, and from never reading any of Alison Malee before, you can now consider me a big fan. Recommended to anyone and everyone.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This is a fantastic book of poetry. My favorite poem as someone who deals with speech is "language"

we communicate
with hands and eyes.
it is our accidental language.
we learned it clumsily,

but i think we will keep it.

The Day is Ready for You by Alison Malee is a poetry collection divded into three parts: unmoveable things, a restless pause, and prayers like exhales. The entire collection is free-verse, and written in all lowercase text.

Part one seems very anger filled, with themes of a wanting for love, the inculcated beliefs of being not good enough, and finding mismatched love that inevitably breaks apart. I can so grok these things. Part two seems more about broken love or departed love, learning to survive these things and how hard that can be. How it can seem much easier to try to hold one instead of letting go. Part three seems more spiritual overall, generally more about learning to be brave, finding your sense self-worth, and learning to love oneself.

'playing cards’ was one of my favourite poems. It reminded me of a quote from the show House, MD where Dr House somewhat cynically, and sadly, notes “If the wonder is gone when the truth is known, then there never really was any.” Both poem and quote speak to the metaphysicist in me, both perhaps taken in a different light than intended.

'drop them’ spoke deeply to me, as one who carries these loaded guns around as well, the demons of low self-worth, the inculcated limiting beliefs I need so desperately to drop, to let go of, yet how hard that is!

'worth’ was another poem speaking to me of reclaiming my sense of self-worth.

Others that spoke deeply to me were 'slow’, 'strange thing’, and 'does it’. Overall, I enjoyed this collection. It made me think, and left me pondering at times. Plus, it has a gorgeous cover! Highly recommended for those who enjoy free verse poetry.

***Many thanks to Netgalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.