The Whole by Contemplation of a Single Bone

Poems that are unsettling and gave me a feeling of loneliness and sorrow. themes of recovery and loss. I had a tough time relating to many but some I felt and others I enjoyed. Margalo was my favorite.

Moments of lyrical exploration coupled with an incisive command of language-Pearson's work seems strange yet deeply familiar. She transforms the personal into the universal, as all resonant poetry does. We are all tied into the same myth grid, to paraphrase one of her works. I will introduce this to students as a new and exciting poetic voice.

This poetry collection was one that made me contemplate about the themes and images it toyed with for a couple of days after finishing it. It confused me and it made me smile or frown in recognition of my own feelings among these complicated complexes of words. The dissimilarity of the poems in terms of form was pleasant to me, since the prose-like ones seemed like the unravelling of one's deepest thoughts and made them differ from the rest. Overall, I truly enjoyed this poetry collection.

The Whole by Contemplation of a Single Bone is a striking, starling collection of poems. The poems are just the right shade of dark for me. I loved every poem in this collection. I thought about the poems and the themes when I wasn’t reading it. Some poems stayed in my head for days. This collection reminds me of the poems of one of my favourite writers, Joyce Carol Oates. I really liked the fact the poems are written in different styles and forms so every page was a surprise.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced reader's copy. I really enjoyed this book of poetry. The poems were wonderful and thought provoking. I enjoyed most all of the poems, but I really liked North Star. It stood out to me the most because it is so heavy in terms of its tone and context. This book is both magical and captivating. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes poetry and literature/fiction.

A beautiful collection of poetry which was deeply relatable, and such a joy to have the honour to read. The words are powerful and carefully selected by a writer who has the confidence to know what she is doing. Some pieces stood out more than others, but The Whole by Contemplation of a Single Bone did not, in my opinion, contain any notable weak points.
A full 4 stars from me and hope that I will read many more of Pearson's collections in the future.

Such a great collection of beatiful poems! Nancy K. Pearson did a great job on saying things - that most sad and depressed person can not literally say - through poetry.

I love this collection. There are just some which I find plain, and there are some which is just too much (which is kinda great). But definitely, this collection contains of beautiful words that will feed your beautiful souls. It lets people understand or atleast feel the feelings they aren't able to understand before. Somehow it closes the gap between the sad and the happy.

I would recommend this collection not just for people who loves poetry but also to anybody who is finding a nice, emotional and deep collection of poems. This is definitely for you!

Content: Depression, Loneliness, Abuse, Violence

Thank you net galley for giving me a copy of this. 4 of 5 stars.

When words cease to matter,
there is all this white space.

“Typeface elegy”

The Whole by Contemplation of a Single Bone: Poems by Nancy K Pearson is her second collection of published poetry. Pearson received her MFA from George Mason University. Recently, she completed two seven-month poetry fellowships at The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. Previously she taught poetry at the University of Houston. Her work has won several awards and honors including runner-up at the 2007 Iowa Review Poetry Award, 2009 Lambda Literary Awards finalist, 2012 Pushcart Prize Nomination and numerous others. Pearson avid runner and cyclist, she now lives on Cape Cod with her partner.

Pearson's second collection of poetry is an interesting work titled after Sherlock Holmes' quote on George Cuvier's ability to describe an entire animal by examining a single bone. There are several themes that carry through this collection including endurance, running, and science. The first two themes run consistently through the collection. Science takes several forms from elements to plate tectonics.

The writing at times is complex but very rewarding to the reader willing to take his or her time in the reading. There are two poems titled Houston and anyone who has spent time in that city will instantly recognize and relate to the subject. There are also two poems dealing with drugs and addiction. Nature, trees, and the earth, in general, all play a role in this collection.

Although not lyrical in style the poems do stay in the reader’s memory after reading. The paragraph form or seemingly random line breaks create their own structure and form. This is a collection that the reader will appreciate more with each reading. A complex mix of subjects, emotions, and style make this a unique collection.

I decided to branch out a bit more with my NetGalley reading and do read some poetry. This book was very interesting. I mean the title is fabulous.

Nancy Pearson's book wasn't exactly what I expected, but it is poetry. Every poet has a different idea of what makes sense and what goes together, and I think that makes it hard for the readers sometimes. As for me I thought the poetry was very pretty. The descriptions and metaphors were beautiful and I loved the poems even when I didn't understand them. That said, half the time I didn't really know what the author was talking about. The deeper meaning of the poems were often lost to me...Which was disappointing. I've always been a big lover of poetry and I love finding the hidden nuggets within verse. But I couldn't find them in this book.

Dark imagery in modern day poems

I have not read any poetry since I was at university so this was a trip down memory lane. When I first realised that I would have to review poems I was overcome with dread as it was my least favourite subject. I did a little research on Nancy K. Pearson but she is quite a mystery - the only reference I could find is to her first book of poetry Two Minutes of Light published in 2008 and the numerous awards she has won.

I could not find any information about her personal life and she has no Facebook, Twitter etc. I was hoping to get an insight into the poet in order to better understand the poems.

Having no insight into the poet I had to rely on the poems themselves. The imagery is often searing - ‘I hid my hypodermic needles. I let my best friend smuggle my meth in her vagina while the airplane, that slow pinball flipper, pushed us closer to the mushroom-shaped bell dinging in Las Vegas (Abrams creek). Whilst I’m not sure that all of the poems are autobiographical I get a sense that the poet has a deep understanding of addiction and the lure of drugs.

The poems all differ in length, some consist of only a few lines and yet the poet manages to convey deep emotion and vivid imagery in each poem. Some of the words and imagery resonated with me and some of it went over my head.

There are recurring themes around drug addiction, running and family trauma.

It was a really difficult exercise but I was challenged all the way through and my brain was constantly engaged and forced to really think about the words and what the poet was trying to convey, hence the 3 star rating. I’m not sure if this rating is fair considering all the accolades already awarded to the poet. Any avid poetry reader would probably award more stars.

Gillian Minogue

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

There is a lot of interesting work here. Pearson also writes a lot more about harsh living than many poets. I did enjoy reading it.

At times lyrical, at times gushing forth in agony, this is a collection of poems to read over and over again. Beautifully detailed descriptions of nature are overshadowed by the threatening underlying buzz of pill-popping and darkness. There is a breathless, raw quality to most of the work, and I enjoyed the experimentation with form - ranging from prose to free verse to more formal verse.

Beautiful poetry with really good meaning and and varying amounts of depth that kept me glued to the book!