Love Letters to the World

What I Liked
I loved that this collection of poetry was so meditative! Geddes definitely knows how to lull a reader into a mental state that is calm enough to contemplate her poetry, but not so calm that one falls asleep. Geddes then uses that beautiful state of mental bliss to encourage her audience to try to truly understand the physical and spiritual implications of her poetry. I loved this because there was a surface level, then a bottom of the iceberg, then a bottom of the ocean to each of her poems. I absolutely had to be in the mental state that Geddes put me in to be able to understand each of these three parts. And, let me tell you, she never failed to put me into that mental state.

I also loved the way that each of the letters was written! Each poem was so natural sounding that the words rolled off of the tongue without any of the forced strangeness that results from the work of other modern day poets.

What I Disliked
Although the poetry was very beautiful, I wish that there would have been a plot. I would have liked to know what was going on to inspire Geddes to write each of the poems. It's not as though she sat down and looked at a calendar and decided to write about a subject based on the day. Why does it matter that a little girl hugs her? Why is she writing about pregnant bellies all of a sudden? I believe that Geddes should have allowed her audience to get to know her through her poetry.

I also disliked the repetitive nature of the letters. Yes, these are all letters. Yes, that's important to your book. No, you do not have to use the same greeting and salutation for each letter. After a while, that begins to detract from the book.

Final Thoughts
This may be a book that requires some knowledge of the discussed pieces. For example, the parts involving pregnancy did not affect me as much as they would have if I were a mother. I would like to go back and see how these poems change their meaning for me as I change and grow.

If this book was a tea, it would be jasmine. It is calming, but filled with complex undertones.

Heartfelt and lovely. A call for mindfulness and being present in the world.

Love Letters to the World by Meia Geddes and published this first October is a lyrical private message to the world in letters.
Divided per chapters the book treats and space every possible existential problem and the letters addressed to the world with honesty, the world treated as if it would be sometimes a friend.
Love, sex, language, the skeptical idea of a perfect existence. You will find all these considerations in a very delicate treat.
Reading this book is like entering in a room tiptoeing where you will find poetry and delicacy.
The author gives her best with a sophisticated language.
It's an intimate book plenty of fascination.

I love the delicate cover of the book.

I thank NetGalley for this book.

Love Letters to the World
by Meia Geddes
Poetose Press

New Adult, Poetry
Pub Date 01 Oct 2016
I was given a copy of Love Letters to to the World through the publisher and their partnership with Netgalley in exchange for my honest review which is as follows:
Love Letters to the World is a collection of prose, little letters to the World singing of its praise.
Love Letters to the World shows of the unfolding beauty of the seasons and notices the little beauties in the lives.
The Poems or letters in this book not only show the authors awakening awareness of the world around her but of her discovering who she is as well.
I give Love Letters to the World five out of five stars
Happy Reading

Love Letters to the World by Meia Geddes is the poet’s first published collection of poetry. Geddes was born in China, raised in Sacramento, and lives in Boston. She graduated from Brown University and has been the recipient of a Fulbright grant, and is currently completing her master's in library and information science, folding paper cranes for her small business Make-A-Crane, and working as an assistant at MIT Sloan School of Management. Her novella, The Little Queen, is forthcoming in 2017.

Love Letters to the World is exactly what the title proclaims. Geddes writes a series of poetic one paragraph letters to the world. At first read, the poems are innocent and almost druidical with descriptions of rain, fields and nature in general. There is no mention of so-called civilization-- buildings, cities, or highways. People are seldom mentioned and the dreariness of a day to day job is absent. Although written in prose format the writing takes on a feel of pastoral or romantic poetry. There is a relationship that develops between the poet and the reader. The reader, especially the middle-aged reader, will be taken back to simpler times and draw back on their younger days.

Reading a bit deeper the reader will identify a different relationship. There is a more personal relationship between the poet and the "world." There is a place for the world -- nature and elements. Then there is a place for what becomes the poet's world in another person. “Sometimes I simply want to touch you. I want to run my fingers along the edges of your clouds, the tips of your fields, the impossible corners of you.” A person can become one's world. The poet seems to wander back and forth between the two worlds.

There is another relationship in the writing. It is between the poet and words. “Words bring to paper a shape of love.” and “One cannot fill the pages of life as with a lined notebook.” Some things can only be expressed by words. The use of words and the connotation rather than denotation play a major role in the writing. Time becomes one of those words that strives for meaning.

Love Letters to the World starts with a simple premise. One might see it as simplistic, but it is like a snowflake. It is ordinary until you look at the detail and see the crystalline formation. Geddes tells the reader to look, look deeper, really look deep and it is then the reader sees the real multifaceted beauty. Very nicely done.