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The Span of a Small Forever: Poems – A Black Woman's Lyrical Testimony on Chronic Illness, Disability, and Transcendent Transformation
With echoes of Audre Lorde’s The Cancer Journals and Susan Sontag’s Illness as Metaphor, an extraordinary debut collection from a prize-winning poet that chronicles a Black woman’s journey through disability, the byzantine healthcare system, life-giving, taking, and sacrifice. With breathtaking lyricism and a vulnerability that pierces the heart, April Gibson journeys through the emotional abysses, the daily pleasures, the frustrations, and the joys of being a Black woman living with chronic illness. Gibson offers a unique perspective on “the body,” viewing disability and healthcare through both feminist and socio-economic lenses filtered by race and faith. Through gorgeous sensory language that migrates memories, from carefree innocence to the ravages formed in its absence, Gibson bears witness to grief, courage, and resistance to redefine herself on her own terms. Gibson presents her body as a “looking glass” that re-envisions illness, womanhood, motherhood, religious relics and collective loss through her physicality, through her lamenting, through her unearthing, reckoning and rebirth. Not only do we see her, but see the “we” in her. The Span of a Small Forever is both testimony and transformation—heart-shattering in its honesty, it ultimately offers us transcendent beauty, nourishment, and the strength we need to go on in our lives.
- GenresPoetry
144 pages, Paperback
Published April 2, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
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July 10, 2024so raw, honest, unflinching. this poetry collection contemplates living with a chronic illness, religious angst, trauma, a complicated pregnancy, and ancestry. i appreciated the various forms used throughout, particularly the prose poems, which i found to be my favorites in this collection.
September 28, 2023
Like all poems, these in The Span of a Small Forever by April Gibson, are very emotional. Your soul will connect to another human being unknown or known. In one, I think of my mother who had cancer. However, thinking.of young people with such horrible symptoms is very painful. We can not reach deeply into their spirits but poetry almost takes us there. Illness takes us on an unwanted visit whether we are a parent or whomever we might know, relative or friend. In the end, we come away with a better understanding. One of the many important thoughts is that illness is a common denominator. The rich are no different from the poor. The real pain, the dark dreams are the same in each case. They are just given another name. Also, the stellar question is asked why? Because of my lack in understanding of Religion, Ethics or Spirituality, I am not sure. In one verse, I hear the voice of a mother. Her children unwilling to leave her in that room, and she is distraught to see them go. The book is filled with a cornucopia of cries and sighs. Oh, if only all poems were written like these here. They open the heart.
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February 27, 2024Thank you Amistad and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy!
This was a really sad, raw and powerful book about chronic pain, childhood trauma, motherhood and racism, along with many other important topics. There were several poems from this collection that I was drawn to, such as Blue Magic, Dear Everyone Who Ain’t a Black Woman, and Just When I Thought I was Grown, I Grew. I was only able to understand about 50% of the poems in this collection, but I still really enjoyed hearing from an experience unlike my own and I liked the prose and rhythm. I also really like the cover! I do think that it was a little on the longer side and could have been edited down, but that’s really my only critique.
This was a really sad, raw and powerful book about chronic pain, childhood trauma, motherhood and racism, along with many other important topics. There were several poems from this collection that I was drawn to, such as Blue Magic, Dear Everyone Who Ain’t a Black Woman, and Just When I Thought I was Grown, I Grew. I was only able to understand about 50% of the poems in this collection, but I still really enjoyed hearing from an experience unlike my own and I liked the prose and rhythm. I also really like the cover! I do think that it was a little on the longer side and could have been edited down, but that’s really my only critique.
September 8, 2024
I requested this because the author has Crohn’s but there’s very few poems dedicated to it and much about childhood and religion. So this failed to resonate with me.
I wanted
anger
rage
rebellion
to match my own
but got
resignation
acceptance
life.
I wanted
anger
rage
rebellion
to match my own
but got
resignation
acceptance
life.
April 23, 2024
Thank you BookSparks & the author for a copy of The Span of a Small Forever!
Sometimes I love poetry because it puts into words exactly what I wish I could say. And while this book of poetry did resonate with me in some aspects, I was really interested in these poems based on the blurb - "a unique perspective on 'the body,' viewing disability and healthcare through both feminist and socioeconomic lenses filtered by race and faith." I work as a content specialist in healthcare and I been learning more and more about how healthcare is affected by socioeconomic status and race, so I knew I wanted to request this book.
The way April Gibson was able to portray her experiences just made me shudder at times. And other times it just made me sad that this continues to be the experience of so many people. Although short at about 125 pages, this book of poetry will have a lasting impact.
A few bits of the poetry that really struck me.
"...I am left wondering who and what do we mis-identify and leave for dead in these times, for our lack of vision."
"The possibility that our freedom is a fleeting reality, or not a reality at all, is a cultural trauma that haunts."
"He left me with the lesson that sometimes people can say, 'I love you' even if they don't 𝘴𝘢𝘺 it at all."
Sometimes I love poetry because it puts into words exactly what I wish I could say. And while this book of poetry did resonate with me in some aspects, I was really interested in these poems based on the blurb - "a unique perspective on 'the body,' viewing disability and healthcare through both feminist and socioeconomic lenses filtered by race and faith." I work as a content specialist in healthcare and I been learning more and more about how healthcare is affected by socioeconomic status and race, so I knew I wanted to request this book.
The way April Gibson was able to portray her experiences just made me shudder at times. And other times it just made me sad that this continues to be the experience of so many people. Although short at about 125 pages, this book of poetry will have a lasting impact.
A few bits of the poetry that really struck me.
"...I am left wondering who and what do we mis-identify and leave for dead in these times, for our lack of vision."
"The possibility that our freedom is a fleeting reality, or not a reality at all, is a cultural trauma that haunts."
"He left me with the lesson that sometimes people can say, 'I love you' even if they don't 𝘴𝘢𝘺 it at all."
July 14, 2024
I don't typically pick up poetry books, but wow, it was rather difficult to put this book down. Gibson was brutally honest as she shared themes that many BIPOC women unfortunately face on a daily basis.
Here are some memorable quotes that stood out for me:
From "Love Is":
"Love is a choice and a destiny, instinctive and insane, humble and courageous, of body and mind. Love is the closest thing to travelling time."
From "Blue Magic":
"If I stare long enough anything can look like home
A drooping tree can be my grandmother's green drapes, the thick, heavy ones popular in the 70s"
All in all, a beautiful way to process grief, pain, & love.
Here are some memorable quotes that stood out for me:
From "Love Is":
"Love is a choice and a destiny, instinctive and insane, humble and courageous, of body and mind. Love is the closest thing to travelling time."
From "Blue Magic":
"If I stare long enough anything can look like home
A drooping tree can be my grandmother's green drapes, the thick, heavy ones popular in the 70s"
All in all, a beautiful way to process grief, pain, & love.
Read
May 27, 2025A beautifully crafted collection of poems about chronic illness, racism, religion, motherhood, and what it means to be a woman. Highly recommend!
August 6, 2025
A review by Joseph Suglia
A review of THE SPAN OF A SMALL FOREVER by April Gibson
by Joseph Suglia
Whenever I pick up an anthology of lyrical poetry—whether it is composed by Stefan George or Heinrich Heine or April Gibson or anyone else—I ask myself the following questions:
“What is the most significant word in this volume? What word, more than any other of the words
found in this script, is the most determinative? Which word is the nexus that holds the other words, and all of the poems, together?”
Now, what seems to me to be “the most significant word” might not seem to you to be the most significant word, and what seems to anyone to be “the most significant word” will depend on the chain and concourse of one’s subjective experiences and on one’s armature of interpretation.
The most significant word in April Gibson’s THE SPAN OF A SMALL FOREVER (2024), it appears to me, is “teratology.”
“Teratology”: this unfamiliar yet intriguing word means “the study of monsters.” But who determines who is a monster? And what is a monster? Who is a monster? Who is not a monster? What is not a monster?
In the poem that bears this word as its title, we approach something like an answer: A monster is our trauma. Our traumata are our monsters. The poem begins with these verses:
“Trauma lives in your memory like a phantom / limb left after its severing”
So, the monster of trauma survives as a memory in the scarified one’s imagination.
“remember / monsters live by invitation, and if it comes you might listen”
Though a monster does not have a real, objective existence, its apparition can be summoned, beckoned, invoked. But what can be summoned can remain unsummoned. What can be beckoned can remain unbeckoned. What can be invoked can remain uninvoked. And if you look at your trauma in the face, it vanishes:
“when you open your eyes / you don’t see it anymore”
These lines remind me of two of the most influential horror-films of the 1970s: JAWS (1975) and ALIEN (1979). The shark in the former film is terrifying because we don’t see it entire for the most of the film’s running-time, and when we do ultimately see the shark, it is just a rubber fish. The same goes for the Xenomorph in the latter film: When it is blasted into the exosphere, it seems a plastic toy.
Every trauma is a monster. This means (among other things): Every trauma is elusive and insidious. And teratology monsterizes, keeping our monsters alive and painful. As J. G. Ballard writes: “Teratologists have been breeding monsters for years.”
Traumata are important. They produce enduring effects. And they should be spoken and written of, because trauma wants to speak. Trauma wants to be written.
Cultural traumata are predatory, predating upon the traumatized: “The possibility that our freedom is a fleeting reality, or not a reality at all, is a cultural trauma that hunts” (“Location. Location! Location?”).
It is interesting that the word “hunts” is chosen. The non-obvious word “hunts” suggests “haunts,” of course, but it also suggests that one’s trauma is a hunter and the traumatized is quarry.
“Trauma” means “wound,” and there is such a thing as the trauma of trauma, the wounding that comes from having one’s wounds ignored. Being dismissed blithely by an indifferent doctor reopens the wound that he is obligated to heal: “He doesn’t look me in the eye when a few minutes in, / the white man in the white coat traumatizes us again” (“Misdiagnosed”). One is reminded of, among other things, the strain of disgusting self-interestedness that runs throughout the “healthcare” industry.
In “Dawn,” it is suggested, “all species of / transmutable beasts” come from within. We pretend that our monsters are extrinsic to us instead of looking at one another and at ourselves: “We confused our own treachery / with mad science conspiracies, / pandemics, and poisonous air.” After reading these lines for the first time, I nodded my head in assent.
Lest anyone think that the poems collected in this volume are jeremiads of defeat, capitulations to our inner monsters, let me assure the reader that there are inside songs of affirmation, of vigorous self-affirmation, of joyous triumph: “Professional Development,” “Dear Everybody Who Ain’t a Black Woman,” and “Just when I thought I was grown, I grew” are three of the most fortifying and fortitudinous poems that you can read:
“I am spring / rain and remnants. The release / that nurtures the seed. And I am / the green spawning from dirt / to yellow feed for honeybees. / I am multiplicity growing / possibility, and nothing can stop this / flowering” (“Just when I thought I was grown, I grew”).
In “Things to Do in the Belly of a Whale,” cultural and personal trauma is figured as the baleen of a cetacean monstrosity that will only disgorge its captive if the captive forgives its captor—which is something that does not happen in this poem, unlike in the story of Jonah: “I cannot run, can only hide / here in this dark cavity. / the creatures outside swim by and say / the way out of the whale is forgiveness, that I must offer it in exchange for escape. / but the beast has never begged, [italics] forgive me [italics], / and had he, I would have cried, [italics] No [italics]!”
The Prophet Jonah submitted to the whale that engulfed him. The narrator of this poem does not submit and does not forgive, by contrast. This is a poetry of resistance.
I recommend highly this volume of poems for their extraordinary power and for the smooth and soothing suavities of Professor Gibson’s verse. Each of Professor Gibson’s poems is strong yet delicately nuanced. Her poems sacrifice nothing to simplicity and stay in the mind long after they have been read, waiting to be read again and again and again.
Joseph Suglia
A review of THE SPAN OF A SMALL FOREVER by April Gibson
by Joseph Suglia
Whenever I pick up an anthology of lyrical poetry—whether it is composed by Stefan George or Heinrich Heine or April Gibson or anyone else—I ask myself the following questions:
“What is the most significant word in this volume? What word, more than any other of the words
found in this script, is the most determinative? Which word is the nexus that holds the other words, and all of the poems, together?”
Now, what seems to me to be “the most significant word” might not seem to you to be the most significant word, and what seems to anyone to be “the most significant word” will depend on the chain and concourse of one’s subjective experiences and on one’s armature of interpretation.
The most significant word in April Gibson’s THE SPAN OF A SMALL FOREVER (2024), it appears to me, is “teratology.”
“Teratology”: this unfamiliar yet intriguing word means “the study of monsters.” But who determines who is a monster? And what is a monster? Who is a monster? Who is not a monster? What is not a monster?
In the poem that bears this word as its title, we approach something like an answer: A monster is our trauma. Our traumata are our monsters. The poem begins with these verses:
“Trauma lives in your memory like a phantom / limb left after its severing”
So, the monster of trauma survives as a memory in the scarified one’s imagination.
“remember / monsters live by invitation, and if it comes you might listen”
Though a monster does not have a real, objective existence, its apparition can be summoned, beckoned, invoked. But what can be summoned can remain unsummoned. What can be beckoned can remain unbeckoned. What can be invoked can remain uninvoked. And if you look at your trauma in the face, it vanishes:
“when you open your eyes / you don’t see it anymore”
These lines remind me of two of the most influential horror-films of the 1970s: JAWS (1975) and ALIEN (1979). The shark in the former film is terrifying because we don’t see it entire for the most of the film’s running-time, and when we do ultimately see the shark, it is just a rubber fish. The same goes for the Xenomorph in the latter film: When it is blasted into the exosphere, it seems a plastic toy.
Every trauma is a monster. This means (among other things): Every trauma is elusive and insidious. And teratology monsterizes, keeping our monsters alive and painful. As J. G. Ballard writes: “Teratologists have been breeding monsters for years.”
Traumata are important. They produce enduring effects. And they should be spoken and written of, because trauma wants to speak. Trauma wants to be written.
Cultural traumata are predatory, predating upon the traumatized: “The possibility that our freedom is a fleeting reality, or not a reality at all, is a cultural trauma that hunts” (“Location. Location! Location?”).
It is interesting that the word “hunts” is chosen. The non-obvious word “hunts” suggests “haunts,” of course, but it also suggests that one’s trauma is a hunter and the traumatized is quarry.
“Trauma” means “wound,” and there is such a thing as the trauma of trauma, the wounding that comes from having one’s wounds ignored. Being dismissed blithely by an indifferent doctor reopens the wound that he is obligated to heal: “He doesn’t look me in the eye when a few minutes in, / the white man in the white coat traumatizes us again” (“Misdiagnosed”). One is reminded of, among other things, the strain of disgusting self-interestedness that runs throughout the “healthcare” industry.
In “Dawn,” it is suggested, “all species of / transmutable beasts” come from within. We pretend that our monsters are extrinsic to us instead of looking at one another and at ourselves: “We confused our own treachery / with mad science conspiracies, / pandemics, and poisonous air.” After reading these lines for the first time, I nodded my head in assent.
Lest anyone think that the poems collected in this volume are jeremiads of defeat, capitulations to our inner monsters, let me assure the reader that there are inside songs of affirmation, of vigorous self-affirmation, of joyous triumph: “Professional Development,” “Dear Everybody Who Ain’t a Black Woman,” and “Just when I thought I was grown, I grew” are three of the most fortifying and fortitudinous poems that you can read:
“I am spring / rain and remnants. The release / that nurtures the seed. And I am / the green spawning from dirt / to yellow feed for honeybees. / I am multiplicity growing / possibility, and nothing can stop this / flowering” (“Just when I thought I was grown, I grew”).
In “Things to Do in the Belly of a Whale,” cultural and personal trauma is figured as the baleen of a cetacean monstrosity that will only disgorge its captive if the captive forgives its captor—which is something that does not happen in this poem, unlike in the story of Jonah: “I cannot run, can only hide / here in this dark cavity. / the creatures outside swim by and say / the way out of the whale is forgiveness, that I must offer it in exchange for escape. / but the beast has never begged, [italics] forgive me [italics], / and had he, I would have cried, [italics] No [italics]!”
The Prophet Jonah submitted to the whale that engulfed him. The narrator of this poem does not submit and does not forgive, by contrast. This is a poetry of resistance.
I recommend highly this volume of poems for their extraordinary power and for the smooth and soothing suavities of Professor Gibson’s verse. Each of Professor Gibson’s poems is strong yet delicately nuanced. Her poems sacrifice nothing to simplicity and stay in the mind long after they have been read, waiting to be read again and again and again.
Joseph Suglia
April 20, 2024
The Span of a Small Forever beautifully encapsulates black girlhood, motherhood and life with a chronic illness, easily turning readers to empaths alike. These poems are both deeply relatable and yet truly original, one of a kind.
Thank you Netgally and the publisher for my e-copy in exchange for my honest review.
Thank you Netgally and the publisher for my e-copy in exchange for my honest review.
May 27, 2024
What Gibson has created here is a stunning exploration of various themes—family, motherhood, relationships, racism, childhood, love, and more.
The first two pieces pulled me in effortlessly-- they were shiny and sharp. But the third one pushed me right back out. It was essentially a lengthy medical report on Crohn's Disease. As someone with a phone full of notes about my own medical struggles, this piece read like one of those—just raw information about Crohn's. Maybe it was a bit over my head, but I think if it had come later in the work, after we got really settled into the flow, the effect may have been less off-putting.
Then came the heart of the work. The author dove into how religious trauma can condition us to be gaslit by medical providers, teaching us that suffering is not just inevitable but somehow virtuous. She explored her medical trauma, her childhood and becoming a young mother, and much more. I found the later poems particularly compelling, rounding out this thought-provoking, creative, and beautifully written collection. I enjoyed this book of poetry immensely and will be keeping my eyes peeled for more of her work.
And I have to say—"Incubus is Latin for Fuckboy" is a 10/10 title. No notes.
The first two pieces pulled me in effortlessly-- they were shiny and sharp. But the third one pushed me right back out. It was essentially a lengthy medical report on Crohn's Disease. As someone with a phone full of notes about my own medical struggles, this piece read like one of those—just raw information about Crohn's. Maybe it was a bit over my head, but I think if it had come later in the work, after we got really settled into the flow, the effect may have been less off-putting.
Then came the heart of the work. The author dove into how religious trauma can condition us to be gaslit by medical providers, teaching us that suffering is not just inevitable but somehow virtuous. She explored her medical trauma, her childhood and becoming a young mother, and much more. I found the later poems particularly compelling, rounding out this thought-provoking, creative, and beautifully written collection. I enjoyed this book of poetry immensely and will be keeping my eyes peeled for more of her work.
And I have to say—"Incubus is Latin for Fuckboy" is a 10/10 title. No notes.
October 30, 2023
I read an advanced copy of this book from Netgalley. First and foremost, I want to say how beautifully this collection came full circle. It begins and ends with poems about chronic illness that perfectly tie together all the poems that reside in between--family, loss, grief, racism, disability, religion, illness, and broken systems. Typically I do not enjoy rhyming poetry (usually it feels outdated, forced, and unnecessary) but the way April Gibson plays with language in this work is truly astounding. The handful of rhyming poems that are included only add to the richness and depth of this collection and serve to enhance the way she utilizes other poetic language tools. There were several lines that absolutely took my breath away, though I hesitate to quote them lest they be removed from the final edition (hopefully not!). The Span of a Small Forever is a complex and skillfully crafted collection that contains and conveys so much within such a small space. I did not want this to end. I cannot wait for this book's final publication date so I can hold and keep a physical copy--it is one that I will definitely be purchasing.
April 26, 2024
I’ll be honest- I don’t feel qualified to review this book. It is a small book of poems where Gibson explores her feelings around suffering through Crohn’s disease and growing up Black. She describes her childhood trauma and the terrifying racism she’s experienced and the despair she feels knowing her relatives from not long ago were enslaved. I love learning how other people experience lives different from my own. I could relate to the frustration she feels knowing chronic illness is caused by going through awful things… and wondering why this means I then get to go through more hard things? I just feel like I missed so much more because I’m not a talented poetry reader! I need a teacher to go through this stuff with me! I will say I enjoyed even what I didn’t fully understand because of the rhythm and alliteration and exposure to something new. Thank you for the gifted copy, BookSparks.
April 7, 2024
thank you so much to @booksparks for the #gifted copy for the #SPRC2024 lineup 💜
this collection is absolutely beautiful. emotional, metaphorical and mesmerizing. Gibson writes of chronic illness, of racism, religion, of love in its many forms. she explores her experience living as a Black woman, trying to navigate the racist and sexist united states healthcare system, trying to navigate motherhood, trying to understand the past that has given way to her present moment. the craft and style of the poems are stunning; many of her lines took my breath away. i highly recommend this collection!
“the way the birds remind us to wake up, to look up, is a kind of love. love is a choice and a destiny, instinctive and insane, humble and courageous, of body and mind.”
this collection is absolutely beautiful. emotional, metaphorical and mesmerizing. Gibson writes of chronic illness, of racism, religion, of love in its many forms. she explores her experience living as a Black woman, trying to navigate the racist and sexist united states healthcare system, trying to navigate motherhood, trying to understand the past that has given way to her present moment. the craft and style of the poems are stunning; many of her lines took my breath away. i highly recommend this collection!
“the way the birds remind us to wake up, to look up, is a kind of love. love is a choice and a destiny, instinctive and insane, humble and courageous, of body and mind.”
May 6, 2024
This is a wonderful debut collection of poetry! April Gibson’s poems are thoughtful, beautiful, and lingering. There are many that I’ve already shown to others or revisited, even before having finished the full book. And I plan to assign at least one (Coldwater) in my class this fall!
A great collection that touches on family, health, Black womanhood, archives, religion, and so much more. Oftentimes serious, but always honestly real, the book includes a range of poetry types and lengths. I appreciated the subsections to help group the poems around a given theme, though there are clearly connections across the full set of poems. Really nicely done!
A great collection that touches on family, health, Black womanhood, archives, religion, and so much more. Oftentimes serious, but always honestly real, the book includes a range of poetry types and lengths. I appreciated the subsections to help group the poems around a given theme, though there are clearly connections across the full set of poems. Really nicely done!
September 30, 2023
This is my first poetry ARC! I had to read this book in sections because I kept finding that I wanted to sit with the poems and ruminate for a bit longer. The poems are emotional, historical, political, hopeful, confident, traumatic, and full of layered metaphors. The sections are helpful because they group like topics together, allowing them to be read as individual pieces or as a whole. I appreciated the variety of poem types and structures throughout. Trigger warnings: racism, sexism, the “n” word, domestic abuse, white supremacy, teen pregnancy, miscarriage, chronic illness, disability.
January 11, 2024
THE BIG EFFIN OUCH.
April Gibson is a fricking literary wizard and was able to make me cry and feel so embarrassed by my white privilege. Gibson narrates her life and the lives of fellow black women around her through a series of short-form prose and verses that detail the horrors and sorrows that bleed onto the page, painting the bigger picture. Themes of disabilities, death, rebirth, and heartbreak are encroached and depicted throughout this piece.
I am so thankful to Amistad, Netgalley, and April Gibson for granting me digital access to this one before April 2, 2024.
April Gibson is a fricking literary wizard and was able to make me cry and feel so embarrassed by my white privilege. Gibson narrates her life and the lives of fellow black women around her through a series of short-form prose and verses that detail the horrors and sorrows that bleed onto the page, painting the bigger picture. Themes of disabilities, death, rebirth, and heartbreak are encroached and depicted throughout this piece.
I am so thankful to Amistad, Netgalley, and April Gibson for granting me digital access to this one before April 2, 2024.
April 18, 2024
April is National Poetry month and I’ve just finished reading the most powerful collection of poems that went straight to my heart and in some cases, took my breath away. The Span of a Small Forever: Poems by April Gibson is a collection of poems that explores the body, illness, motherhood, racism and becoming. Short poems with deep meaning pierce readers’ hearts and build it up again across clear demarcations in time. Her poem LOVE IS made my breath catch as she explores the beautiful complexity of motherhood and page after page had me stopping, thinking, annotating and taking it all in. Whew. This little book packs a powerful punch.
August 14, 2024
The Span of a Small Forever is a book of poetry that chronicles a black women’s journey with chronic illness, the Byzantine healthcare system, life-giving, taking, and sacrifice. This was a wonderful read of poetry that I loved and really appreciated. It is an eye opening experience of disability and chronic illness, written in a way that makes a reader pause and reflect on what the author is experiencing/experienced in their life. Queen Maker and Survivor’s Soliloquy were two poems that really stood out to me. Other poetry readers should definitely check this one out.
October 1, 2023
April Gibson's book, 'The Span of a Small Forever', is a collection of poetry and thoughts on emotions, disability, religious beliefs, womenhood, and everything else. April uses her writings to share her story and what she's going through. Inside the book, it shows a Black woman's journey through her writings. There are some triggers warnings like racism, chronic illness, grief, and other things. Thank you to Amistad and NetGalley for giving me an opportunity to read this book and do a review.
February 20, 2024
This collection was very powerful but also felt disjointed at times. It was still moving and powerful. I think the first section was the one that i resonated the most with. I think April is a beautiful writer and has the ability to draw me in and make me feel so much. As someone who also has a chronic illness that took forever to get diagnosed.
thank you amistad for the early eARC in exchange for an honest review.
thank you amistad for the early eARC in exchange for an honest review.
March 15, 2024
such emotional poems - would recommend reading with a tissue box nearby. gibson’s command of language is truly masterful & the way she weaves through figures of speech, references, and themes had me re-reading and re-reading. my only complaint would be that, because so many of the poems in this collection are marvels, some poems end up falling flat (or perhaps i’m just not a fan of encountering several prose poems in close proximity).
January 12, 2025
Some poems here really reminded me of milk and honey by Rupi Kaur. To me it felt like the placing of line breaks was random sometimes. Like in “BJ Ruminates on Election Day (2016)” it was just pointless and annoying
She talks about her struggle with health which was insightful and I thought it was brave to try and make a poem about an illness like Crohn’s. That’s why it added value to the book… Three stars
Definitely some powerful lines here though. Maybe not the whole poem
She talks about her struggle with health which was insightful and I thought it was brave to try and make a poem about an illness like Crohn’s. That’s why it added value to the book… Three stars
Definitely some powerful lines here though. Maybe not the whole poem
June 14, 2024
3 stars
I liked some poems in this collection, but nothing stood out to me. As I was reading it felt like I was just kind of reading poems to get through them. I didn't feel overly emotionally moved except for the poems about some of April Gibson's more traumatic moments in her life. She has lived through and overcome a lot of hardships and those poems were more emotional for me.
I liked some poems in this collection, but nothing stood out to me. As I was reading it felt like I was just kind of reading poems to get through them. I didn't feel overly emotionally moved except for the poems about some of April Gibson's more traumatic moments in her life. She has lived through and overcome a lot of hardships and those poems were more emotional for me.
April 8, 2024
3.5!
Thank you BookSparks for gifting me a copy of this book as a part of their spring reading campaign.
I liked many of the poems in this collection, but at the same time a lot of their meanings definitely flew over my head. These poems are definitely for the literary poet!
Thank you BookSparks for gifting me a copy of this book as a part of their spring reading campaign.
I liked many of the poems in this collection, but at the same time a lot of their meanings definitely flew over my head. These poems are definitely for the literary poet!
December 18, 2024
She’s a gifted writer! Not my favorite.
January 28, 2025
Gorgeous collection. The poem “how to survive holding your breath” is deeply relatable to me (and I think would be deeply relatable to most people with disabilities).
July 24, 2025
particularly poignant for those whose grandpas told us they loved us through newspaper clippings cut out and saved
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews