Embodied
Registered by 
GoryDetails
of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 2/4/2023
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
GoryDetails of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 2/4/2023 This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
I got this softcover from local independent bookstore Balin Books (formerly Toadstool Books). (It includes a foldout poster of the cover-art.) It's a collection of poetry in graphic-novel format, by a diverse set of creators and featuring subjects from tender romance to sexism-in-the-workplace to violence from the border patrol to self-harm. Each poem is illustrated by different artists, with the complete text provided after the illustrated versions. (I admit that for some of the poems I found the text easier to follow, though the artwork definitely added - and sometimes seemed to alter - the sense of the poetry.)
Among my favorites:
"Good Bones" by Maggie Smith, which opens "Life is short, though I keep this from my children," and goes on to describe the bleak aspects of life as well as the joyful ones ("...the world is at least half terrible..."), emphasizing that she keeps that from her children... In the text she mentions how a realtor can talk about the "good bones" in a "real shithole," and in the artwork the entire poem plays out against an actual realtor observing the put-away possessions of a previous owner while trying to welcome the happy new couple who want to move in.
"A Love Letter to the Decades I Have Kissed or Notes on Turning 50" by JP Howard: this is a short entry in which a child writes to her own 10-year-old self to remind her how her mother wouldn't let anyone give her a nickname, but recalling how joyful she felt when her dance teacher called her "Jewels" ("That's how I imagined she spelled it").
"To the Cherry Blossoms on 16th and Wharton" by Kayleb Rae Candrilli, a lovely poem (with lovely pastel-palette artwork) musing on love and nature - and with the opening quip that not only can the trees she talks to hear her, but are "probably hollering back, something about 'kids these days'..."
At the end of the book there's a "study guide," questions about each poem, some with exercises for the reader, all meant to inspire a little more thinking about the works.
Among my favorites:
"Good Bones" by Maggie Smith, which opens "Life is short, though I keep this from my children," and goes on to describe the bleak aspects of life as well as the joyful ones ("...the world is at least half terrible..."), emphasizing that she keeps that from her children... In the text she mentions how a realtor can talk about the "good bones" in a "real shithole," and in the artwork the entire poem plays out against an actual realtor observing the put-away possessions of a previous owner while trying to welcome the happy new couple who want to move in.
"A Love Letter to the Decades I Have Kissed or Notes on Turning 50" by JP Howard: this is a short entry in which a child writes to her own 10-year-old self to remind her how her mother wouldn't let anyone give her a nickname, but recalling how joyful she felt when her dance teacher called her "Jewels" ("That's how I imagined she spelled it").
"To the Cherry Blossoms on 16th and Wharton" by Kayleb Rae Candrilli, a lovely poem (with lovely pastel-palette artwork) musing on love and nature - and with the opening quip that not only can the trees she talks to hear her, but are "probably hollering back, something about 'kids these days'..."
At the end of the book there's a "study guide," questions about each poem, some with exercises for the reader, all meant to inspire a little more thinking about the works.
Journal Entry 2 by GoryDetails at LFL - Hartwell Brook Dr. #15 in Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Friday, June 9, 2023
GoryDetails at LFL - Hartwell Brook Dr. #15 in Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Friday, June 9, 2023
Released 10 mos ago (6/9/2023 UTC) at LFL - Hartwell Brook Dr. #15 in Nashua, New Hampshire USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
I left this book in the Little Free Library; hope someone enjoys it![See other recent releases in NH here.]
** Released for the 2023 June Pride LGBTQ+ challenge. **
** Released for the 2023 Allergic to A challenge. **
