How to Be a Poet

Literary, full of lovely words — this book is an enjoyable introduction to a new (to me) voice in verse. Recommended poetic work.

I love this collection and trust me, I am sad that I got to read it in digital version first because given the structure the author incorporates, this is best devoured in print.
It's in two parts; the first half teases what the second half accomplishes and you certainly cannot help but feel lighter and motivated towards the end.
Thanks netgalley for the eARC.

* I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free book.*

J.M. Farkas rewrites Ovid's "Ars Armoria" in two ways. In the first part of the book, the author erased everything but their poem, made up from Ovid snippets, the second part of the book is Ovid's Ars Armoria in full with the author's take on it in bold print. The last part is the newly formed poem only. This technique is not only very interesting from an academic point of view (rewriting?), but also from what poem can be found hidden in a text.

Ovid's Ars Armoria itself is structured in Three Books, the first two telling men how to woo and behave towards women (remember her birthday, lol), and the last one is for women on how to basically be(come) a good wife (how to make up). Ovid is more nuanced than this brief summary, but it's in parts really problematic. Yes, the majority of it might be irony and it might propose a different relation between men and women, but it is certainly possible to read it as problematic.

I found the entire 'business' highly enjoying even though it was a bit hard to go back to Ovid after reading this very feminist and beautiful message. Visually the new poem is stunning. How much had to be erased to find this feminist message is a message in itself.

4,5 Stars

I received an #ebook copy of this book via #netgalley and I enjoy poetry so I enjoyed this very much.