Two Poetry Mini Reviews

Wave If You Can See Me by Susan Ludvigson
Published by Red Hen Press, 2020
My rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Throughout this collection, Ludvigson focusses largely on her husband’s illness and subsequent death, interspersed with musings on her forays into art. Conceptually, I thought this was excellent, showing how creativity and artistic expression can help to both distract and heal in times of suffering.

For me, Ludvigson’s writing was at its strongest when evoking the beauty of the natural world – another source of solace. It’s clear that the content was fuelled by a wealth of personal pain, but her actual poetic style failed to resonate with me on an emotional level. In that sense, it’s a collection I could admire from an abstract perspective, despite ultimately finding it stronger in concept than in execution.

Thank you to the publisher for a free advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. You can pre-order Wave If You Can See Me by clicking here.

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Praising the Paradox by Tina Schumann
Published by Red Hen Press, 2020
My rating: ⭐ ⭐

Though there were some nice lines throughout, this collection was very hit-and-miss for me, unfortunately. The poems that focus on the loss of the poet’s mother, and the resulting fear of impending loss that now hovers over her dementia-suffering father, are particularly strong. With the book being somewhat longer than your average poetry collection, however, these gems felt too few and far between to really hit home. Instead, my lasting impression was that the collection lacked focus. Perhaps a more streamlined selection and a clearer sense of thematic cohesion would have allowed for greater impact overall. That said, those who like their poetry collections to have a free verse, almost stream of consciousness feel, may take more from this.

Thank you to the publisher for a free copy in exchange for an honest review. You can pick up Praising the Paradox by clicking here.

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