Poetry Review TREADING WATER Alyssa Harmon

Thank you to the author Alyssa Harmon and BookSiren for an advance digital copy of TREADING WATER. All views are mine.


habromania 
delusions of happiness 

a calendar with june 24th crossed out in blue pen, 
water spilling out of a cracked straw, 
a fortune cookie that says 
you can’t drown forever, 
a sandless hourglass, 
the stray dog wandering on a deserted beach
with a tag that says you have to be your own savior — 
all these bad habits collected like marbles.
Loc.108

Three (or more) things I loved:

1. "The Chalk Fairy" at loc.130 is an excellent piece. Wonderful progression and turn.

2. I love the piece "band-aids" at loc.121 because of the reference to invisible injury. This is such an important issue for people with disabilities. I really connect to this, as someone with invisible disabilities, and currently helping a family member adapt to a newly developed invisible disability. 

3. "anchors" is a brilliant little piece about mental illness, and the weighted blanket image works on a few different levels for this interpretation.

4. Some interesting forms in this book, like "i'm fine" which is a poem in form of a word definition, in different parts of speech, for the word "fine."

5. This collection includes some really great lines, like this first line from "birthstone:" my birthstone is rock bottom...loc. 206, and this one from "addictions:" you have to learn how to be happy/ without depression telling the joke... loc. 369

Three (or less) things I didn't love:

This section isn't only for criticisms. It's merely for items that I felt something for other than "love" or some interpretation thereof.

1. "The Chalk Fairy" at loc.130 is an excellent piece. Would it be better without the fourth line?

2. This poetry really understands parasuicidality: what if every morning i woke up surprised/ (and a little disappointed)/ i made it through the night...loc. 233 And in "death with benefits," loc. 327, the poet depicts parasuicidal urges as a kind of dark suitor who courts, but lingers just out of reach. 

3. Fascinating, what "lexical-gustatory synesthesia" is.

Closing quote: you end up wishing for/ only a fraction of your past...loc. 164

Rating: 💧💧💧💧.5 / 5 tears of many feelings
Recommend? Yes!
Finished: Oct 22 23
Format: Digital arc, Kindle, BookSiren
Read this book if you like:
📃 contemporary minimalist poetry 
👤 mental health themes in poetry
🗣 lyrical poetry
❤️‍🩹 parasuicidality/ suicidality rep

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