Maps for the Modern World

A collection of five parts beautiful poems, mostly about self-awareness and reconciliation. I loved it, it was very peaceful.
Consciousness & Awareness
Journey & Dreams (my favorite section)
Lamentations & Transformation
Earth & other worlds
Mindfulness, Mantras & Meditations

I also loved the illustrations with each poem.

The wall was high
But I knew every stone
For I had built it
On my own

Thanks to Netgalley, I have given an honest review of Maps for the Modern World by Valerie June Hockett.

A beautiful collection of poems. It really helps remind you to be mindful and appreciative of nature, and your surroundings. It was a quick read but I thoroughly enjoyed reading these and would definitely return to the book in future.

I have been busy discovering new poetry this year and most have delved with human relationships and emotions and various stages of them. However this collection is so different and easy to fall into, it flows at times slowly and deeply and others bubbles like a bubbling brook. It is full of advice to a great humanity and our interconnections regardless of our walks of life. It is both hopeful and optimistic for the future, but also reminds us that it is okay to be who we are and so is very peaceful and reassuring.

As a lot of current poetry books it also depicted a collection of clever drawings that added to the experience.

My personal favorite that strongly resonated with me was:

The wall was high
But I knew every stone
For I had built it
On my own

Valerie June Hockett’s work is reflective and written in accessible language. Emotion, comfort, and moments captured in verse.

This collection of poems was a relaxing and thought provoking read. I liked the chapter introductions and illustrations. The illustrations went well with the poems. Some of the poems felt more like quotes or sayings, but most of them had a good flow. My favourites were Every Stone and For You.

I recieved an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

"Maps for the Modern World'' is a book that can be appreciated by a specific audience in a specific mood. For people who tend to not like the form of modern poetry this much - and, partially, I'm one of them - this might not be the poetry collection for you.
Personally, I'm not sure I'd categorize this entire book as poetry. Some of it definitely was, but a lot of this was two-line quotes that, however beautiful, I don't think qualify as poetry to me. Also there was a lot of "space bar poetry", aka sentences separated by space bars so they look like poems.

However, even though I wouldn't consider a big part of this book as poetry, I still found this collection of gorgeous quotes very nice. The essence of it emphasized on self-empowerment, self-love and trying to take control over how you look at the sadness around you in order to enjoy life more. It was very spiritual, positive and optimistic and it felt like a self-help book with all the empowering quotes! I'd recommend it if you want to read something that will make you feel happy and inspired to have trust in life and yourself!

Also, the book comes with gorgeous little sketches/drawings that I thought were super cute and aesthetic!

Listening to this on audiobook as well, the author is narrating it herself, which made it super special! She narrates it with so much passion and love, you could tell from her voice and that made it even better!

This book was sent to me as an ARC on NetGalley. However all opinions are of my own.
I loved how this Poetry book was split into sections. It felt a lot more organised.
I love reading poetry as I find it easy to relate to and I felt that with this book.

“This book is a laboratory of poetic experiments in the alchemy of life. While we all hope for a brighter world, it can be difficult to see how to navigate through the raging storms. I have to believe we are the creators of the world we see each day and that the stillness that can be felt in the wake of every storm holds the key to the map of all change. A map that can be drawn only by your own hand.”- from the Foreword of Maps of the Modern World

Maps for the Modern World is a wonderful poetry collection for me to have read at the beginning of National Poetry Month. When I saw the bright cover, sun/compass illustration, and Valerie June’s name, I knew that I had to read it.

As I write this review, I’m listening to/watching Valerie June’s KEXP performance, and she radiates warmth through the screen. I think that she was able to cultivate that sense of warmth within this collection as well. I will say that her style of poetry isn’t a style that I naturally gravitate towards. It is a kind of poetry that I don’t know the name for, but I’ll just call it abstraction poetry (think Rupi Kaur & Lang Leav). The sort of poetry that is focused on these big concepts like love, life, sadness, triumph, but tries to be more direct in what it wants the reader to take away rather than making use of poetic devices. I think that this sort of poetry resonates with a lot of people who find that poetry is too stuffy and purposefully inaccessible. Maps for the Modern World is filled to the brim with abstractions and is sometimes a little bit woo-woo in a way that reminds me of reading a Dr. Bronner’s castile soap bottle, but perhaps those are the reasons that I adore this collection.

In the acknowledgements, Hockett mentions that she started writing poetry everyday after the death of her father. So it makes sense that many of these poems are about the transformative nature of death and endings, about death being final but also being a transfer of energy. She also explores agency. There is a whole poem about how our civic duty does not end at the ballot box, how our civic responsibilities cannot be passed onto politicians. She writes about periods, pads, and tampons. She writes about God and spirituality but doesn’t proselytize. Her poetry is so different from, yet so similar to her music.

My favorite part about this collection is that she writes about her experiences as a Black woman in some of these poems, and there are little doodles throughout of a figure with kinky, free-flowing hair. I love that these poems are representations (though not always directly) of Black womanhood that is rife with kindness, gentleness, quirkiness, occasional light vulgarity—Black womanhood that is ever working towards compassionate justice, committed to mindfulness and the natural world, and always open to exploring uncharted depths no matter what others may think.

There are benefits to both the physical text (with its many adorable doodles and to see the words and line breaks on the page) and the audio (because Valerie June has the coolest Tennessee accent and a beautiful voice).

All in all, there are so many pieces from this collection that resonate with me: “Responsibilities After Voting,” “A Goddess Mantra (To Be Repeated),” “Spirit’s Spell,” “Ode to Fuckin’ Feelin’,” and “Comfortably” particularly stood out. This collection is like a warm mug of tea the way that it radiates warmth and suggests being present for the moment at hand, being mindful.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for providing me with an ARC and the opportunity to read this lovely collection in exchange for an honest review.

This collection of poems was lovely. Very easy to dip in and out of and the pictures would make it great for a coffee table.

There were a mix of short and long poems with drawings throughout. I liked the introductions to each section and enjoyed the collection.

I would recommend.

Thank you for the arc.