Mary Heim

I haven't read much, if anything, in this category of memoir through poetry.

I don't know exactly if that is how she would sell it, but that is really how it felt to me.

And I just found it such a cool way to experience someone's story while also finding bits of my own experiences scattered throughout or at least resonance there.

To top it off, there's an interlude in the middle of the collection that is solely about Eve, of Adam and Eve, that I found to be so unexpected and interesting and just deeply representative of so much of the deconstruction of the patriarchy that is on my mind a lot lately, I think as with plenty of other readers.

Joy is an excellent writer, and I found myself so moved by one of her poems in this collection that I even brought it to the therapy room.

in the right circumstance with the right client.

It just stuck with me.

It still just sits with me so deeply.

Like with any poetry collection, of course, some worked more for me than others.

But overall, I just found the individual poems and the overall almost narrative structure of this collection just so worth my reading time for poetry lovers and newbies alike.

And honestly, if you enjoyed Comfort Me With Apples, I'll throw you in there to this category as well.

This was an

excellent addition, whether it's to your morning reading, your poetry collection, or just to try something a little bit different.

That was Instructions for Traveling West by Joy Sullivan.

It's beautiful.

It is really beautiful to behold.

And it's one of those paperbacks that does, this doesn't really matter, but the tactile experience of holding it.

It's a paperback book that has like the folded over flaps.

French flap.

Thank you.