Born to Love, Cursed to Feel

Thank you for the chance to review this title. My review is now live on my blog and on Goodreads. Here is the full transcript:

Born to Love, Cursed to Feel is an interesting collection of poems. Very modern in style, some struck me as poignant and apt, making me consider things in my own life experiences; however, a few, to my mind, seemed rather self-indulgent. Some of my favourites were 'Perfect', 'Haunted', 'Canvas', and 'The Shoe Don't Fit'. Punctuation in these poems is minimal, and that didn't worry me, but when punctuation did occur it was sometimes grammatically incorrect, and that niggled at me. I see this collection appealing to fans of modern verse who like a faint touch of melodrama here and there.

Born to Love, Cursed to Feel is an incredible collection of poetry. I loved each and every poem. Many of the poems are narrative. I loved the way the poet uses imagery and language to write about love in its many facets. The author writes about the messy, suffocating, heart-breaking love I can relate to. This is not love that involves sunshine and daisies and little singing birds. This is another, darker sort of love. This is love that bruises your soul, haunts you and leaves a permanent mark on you. These poems reflect a love that consumes you. I devoured every one. Some of my favourites include Perfect, One, Goodbye, Karma, Haunted and Ghosts of New York. I hope I get to read more from this remarkable poet.

The book is beautifully written. Every line makes you feel.
But, personally, I couldn't relate to them. Yes, the book does make you feel. You get what emotions are being conveyed. But it didn't work for me as much I would like poetry to work. I guess it's because I haven't experienced those emotions to relate and feel .

You are reckless, selfish, stubborn, sometimes rude
….
May God have Mercy on your soul For you are truly lost

Born to Love, Cursed to Feel by Samantha King is possibly her first collection of poetry. King does not give a bio and it is difficult which Samantha King she is in a Google search. All I know about the poet is that she is associated with r.h. Sin. I hate to compare her work to his work but there is a clear connection in their style and themes. King really should give some background even if it is fictional.

King writes about relationships. Most do not end well and leave the poet exhausted in her efforts to keep them going or perhaps better them. Some poems are about the relationship, but many are the after effects. "Goodbye" describes the pain of a broken relationship with the realization that life goes on:

The sky didn’t come crashing down Air still flows through my lungs Blood surges through my veins

The "Vow of Silence" is a mere four lines that express more than four paragraphs could. Her writing comes in powerful bursts. The longer poems are ballads to despair, desolation, and dejection. Here the reader must rely on line breaks and capitalization while reading. Punctuation marks, with the exception of question marks, are practically nonexistent. This seems to add to the raw and primal feelings of the writer and adds to, rather than takes away from, the structure and readability. A casual reader may not even notice the absence of punctuation.

King;s poetry details efforts and feelings which are ignored or simply taken advantage of. "Fool Me Twice" shows that the narrator sets herself up to be hurt. It is a delicate balance between giving too much or not enough and to whom the giving is done.

Confession I hate you wouldn’t quite do it I forgive you isn’t quite my speed I regret meeting you would be a lie The best thing for me was removing you from my life That, I am sure of

and

To coming to terms with the fact that just because you Love someone Doesn’t mean you’re supposed to be with them

Not all is dark. “Devotion” and “Home” are the candles in this collection. Taking this collection in a balance it is easy to see how lopsided it is in the favor of darkness and broken relationships. Perhaps it is a reflection on St. Francis of Assisi quote, “All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.” There is plenty of darkness everywhere. Day divides the night, the depths of the oceans or the edges of the universe. Still, the smallest bit of light conquers the darkness. King clearly demonstrates the amount of darkness but always seems to move to the light, if not always reaching it. One sided relationships are left behind. Instead of open rage and violence that is seen so often today, she takes the high road, even in her use of words. There is plenty of anger and disappointment in her voice but she remains in control of her emotions even though her writing delivers a powerful punch to the reader.

This is one of the first poetry books that I have read from start to finish and actually enjoyed reading! So true to life and I love how honest Samantha is in her poetry. I just wish this book had been available when I was 17 years old and completely heartbroken, because all I could think about reading this was how it's a replica of my life back then!

Fantastic works of modern poetry

This collection of poetry by Samantha King collects all the pieces of romantic love and holds them up to the light, to try and make sense of their shapes and colours. From the love and longing to the leaving, and finally the learning, she considers just about every aspect in the process of falling in (and out of) love.

I enjoyed browsing these poems, and I enjoyed them more as I went on, letting the feels come and go and thinking about the ideas held within them. I preferred the shorter poems - often their sharp statements cut straight to the point or left a haunting whisper in the back of my mind. The longer works, although personal and carefully developed, didn't have the same potency, I felt, and dwelled on despair and dejection and everything that could go wrong.

The overall theme of the book is moving on and letting the hard things build you up as a unique character. Your heart may be in a thousand pieces but you've got to pick them up and put it back together again. And many of these poems caught those displaced feelings trapped between silence and words, not seeming quite important enough for a voice of their own and yet still making themselves felt amid the conflict of other emotions.

There's self-examination and frustration, regret, sarcasm, shared pain and shared encouragement, sweet little descriptions of the first stages of love, pockets of hope amid the meandering gloom, and some gems of wisdom. Ms. King is sympathetic to others around her, especially women who've experienced bad relationships, and as I read on I felt that she understood some of me. And she's masterful at writing cheeky little lines that come out of nowhere and bite you.

So yes, I've discovered a poet I like. She has something to say and she says it well. Do I want to read more? Yes. Would I buy this book? Maybe. Would I recommend it to others? Yes, some people (mostly ladies). But of course, I can't finish up without going on a wee philosophical sidetrack.

I really liked this collection so much. Although only a few of the poems really resonated with me, I could appreciate practically every single one of them regardless. My favourites were Sentry and Fuel; they both showed such vivid strength and emotion. I loved them.

This collection of poetry by Samantha King collects all the pieces of romantic love and holds them up to the light, to try and make sense of their shapes and colours. From the love and longing to the leaving, and finally the learning, she considers just about every aspect in the process of falling in (and out of) love.

I enjoyed browsing these poems, and I enjoyed them more as I went on, letting the feels come and go and thinking about the ideas held within them. I preferred the shorter poems - often their sharp statements cut straight to the point or left a haunting whisper in the back of my mind. The longer works, although personal and carefully developed, didn't have the same potency, I felt, and dwelled on despair and dejection and everything that could go wrong.

The overall theme of the book is moving on and letting the hard things build you up as a unique character. Your heart may be in a thousand pieces but you've got to pick them up and put it back together again. And many of these poems caught those displaced feelings trapped between silence and words, not seeming quite important enough for a voice of their own and yet still making themselves felt amid the conflict of other emotions.

There's self-examination and frustration, regret, sarcasm, shared pain and shared encouragement, sweet little descriptions of the first stages of love, pockets of hope amid the meandering gloom, and some gems of wisdom. Ms. King is sympathetic to others around her, especially women who've experienced bad relationships, and as I read on I felt that she understood some of me. And she's masterful at writing cheeky little lines that come out of nowhere and bite you.

So yes, I've discovered a poet I like. She has something to say and she says it well. Do I want to read more? Yes. Would I buy this book? Maybe. Would I recommend it to others? Yes, some people (mostly ladies).

I've been reading quite a few collections of poetry this year, so when I saw this was available on NetGalley I was quite excited to read it, and downloaded it immediately. Once I started reading it, however, I kept putting it down and left it to sit in favour of reading other things. After it sat for a few weeks on my eReader, I finally decided to sit down and just finish it.

Overall this was a quick, fairly enjoyable read - some poems really stood out to me, while I barley skimmed others. I also found some of the collection to be fairly repetitive, though I am not sure if that is because many of the same themes and ideas keep coming up in all the poems or because I read though most of this collection at one time.

While this collection as a whole was not exactly my cup of tea, there were a few poems in here that stood out to me, and because of this I am interested in following along with Samantha King development as an artist and will likely read her second collection (if one is ever published).

I would recommend this book only to those who are looking for another collection of poetry to try - perhaps if they had read the work of r.h. Sin or another similar poet and were looking for something to read next - rather than to someone who has not read any poetry of this type before.

Amazing book. Some of the poems are so deep and strike a chord in my soul.

A beautiful work of modern poetry! My first from this author but will not be my last for sure.