Let the Light Pour In

by Lemn Sissay

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
For the past decade, Lemn Sissay has composed a short poem as dawn breaks each morning. Life-affirming, witty and full of wonder, these poems chronicle his own battle with the dark and are fuelled by resilience and defiant joy. Let the Light Pour In is a collection of the best of these poems, and a book celebrating this morning practice. It's first-aid for the heart!

'How do you do it?' said night
'How do you wake up and shine?'
'I keep it simple,' said light
'One day at a time'

Genres: Poetry, Audiobook, Contemporary, Nonfiction, Adult

192 pages, Hardcover

Published March 5, 2024

About the author

Lemn Sissay OBE (born 21 May 1967), is a British author and broadcaster.

Reviews

[hawk · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this collection of Lemn Sissay's short morning meditations 🙂

💛 simple, skilled, short, sweet, savoury, sad, silly, serious, sunny... 💛

and very aptly (and coincidentally?) I read/listened to them in sunshine, at the start of my day 🌞🙂


🌟 🌟 3.5 🌟 🌟


accessed as a library audiobook, read by the author 🙂💛

[Tilly · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 Stars

I was so excited for this book as I love this more modern form of poetry. I am a lover of words and usually feel so connected when reading anything creative and usually find quotes that I become obsessed with and completely relate to.
Although I definitely enjoyed a few of these poems, and there was one or two that made me feel, unfortunately they were in the minority.
I found this whole collection to be very repetitive and so I started to get bored as they just didn't do anything for me. Sadly I feel even this 2 star rating is being generous.
For me, most of these poems felt like something that I would have written at the age of 15. They were a bit cringeworthy, lacking in depth and substance. Of course there were exceptions to the rule but overall, I just wasn't a fan.
I am genuinely sad to write this as I was so looking forward to reading this and I hate writing bad reviews but I just have to be honest about how I felt about this book. Sadly, I would not recommend it.

Please note that I was gifted this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Start your day the right way

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely collection of morning meditations.

[Merryn Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few hilarious/wonderful/heart wrenching standouts but also a lot of sameness

[Jungian.Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a good collection

[Hayley Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

a lovely collection of morning poems (although also not bc i would quite happily have read it all day and not done anything productive), very easy read and will definitely be reading his other works. also gave me morning reading motivation that i’ll be upholding for the rest of the year. thank u jadey wadey my wonderful friend that gifted me this💛

[Alex :P · Rating 4 out of 5]

short n' (sometimes bitter)sweet. quirky at times. love it.

[Kirst · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful poignant and at times amusing poems. I love them and have since reading My Name is Why which was fantastic yet brutal to read. The poems just added something extra and I could bring all those themes to this book.
Love Lemn ♥️

[Jade Finzi · Rating 3 out of 5]

some really sweet little poems in here!!!! but this is my notice of retirement from reading poetry it isn’t for me

[Bookphenomena (Micky) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hopeful
Real
Powerful
Small bites of prose
Wonderful

I will read this again and again

[Bridie Beaumont · Rating 5 out of 5]

lovely

[jolovesbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much beauty, meaning and impact contained in so few words.

After grabbing me at the start, I lost my way a bit with this in the middle before finding it again towards the end.


'How do you do it?' said night
'How do you wake up and shine?'
'I keep it simple,' said light
'One day at a time'

Said the mind to the heart
Said the heart to the mind
'The important kind of art
Is the art of being kind'

I am the bull in the China shop
And with all my strength and will
As a storm smashed the teacups
I stood still

'I am not defined by darkness'
Confided the night
'At dawn I am reminded
I am defined by light'

If it were not imagined
It could not be made
Therefore imagination
Must not be afraid

When storms surround me
And surround me they will
I tell myself to bell myself
Hold on and hold still

The lesson of dawn is
Subtle and sublime -
Take it easy, but take it all
One day at a time

Rise, rise from out your bed
There are dreams in the air
Harvest light for days ahead
And shine it everywhere

'Not lost,' said the sun
At the start of the day
'Just following the sky
And finding my way'

Guide me with your light
Take me through today
I'm tired and losing sight
Might you light the way?

Meet me by the morning
On the corner of night
Where mist rises
And hope's in sight

I have seen your greatness
The strength of your will
What it took you to get this far
Is what will take you further still

Like a shadow in the wind
A brief reflection on glass
Like a wave beneath a wing
This too shall pass

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this selection of short poems. It's definitely an easy read with most of the poems being 4 lines long, they all follow a similar rhyming pattern and the majority have similar hopeful messages in them. There are some poems in the collection I thought were particularly beautiful, especially considering they packed so much into so few words, but what ultimately stopped me giving 5 stars to this collection is that some of the poems are incredibly similar.

This isn't to say those poems are bad but with the poems being so short and the collection being so easy to read, you pick up fairly quickly that some of the poems have almost the exact same lines in them, at times it did feel like I read the same poem over and over again (and on more than one occasion flipped back to make sure it wasn't just me having a strange poetic deja vu moment). It's mainly a personal preference but when I'm reading a collection all by the same poet I don't usually expect some of the poems to be near identical, they just felt a little unnecessarily added in and the poems didn't hold the same impact when you come across the same lines a few pages later.

[Sasha Mottaghi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very sweet little collection of one-verse, four-line poems from Lemn Sissay. Some are very topical and others little ditties; others feel quite profound, despite their short lengths.

I tried to pace this through the year, reading a small handful of poems every so often, rather than just sitting and blitzing through it (which you could easily do in an hour or two, given the simplicity of the short verses) - I think I enjoyed it much more this way.

[Freya Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would read Lemn Sissay's shopping list at this point.

Bought before seeing him live at the Derngate on his 'Let the Lighr Pour In Tour', full of beautiful, witty, thought provoking poems. Hearing him perform them live and explain the meaning behind them made them really come to life.
My favourite one (recommend looking up the song version at Stongehenge on Solstice) is -

" How do you do it said night
How do you wake and shine
I keep it simple said light
One day at a Time"
✨️

[Joel Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy reading , light-hearted, some great little poems to brighten your day. For example;

"Last night I had a nightmare Imprisoned by my clone. I watched him tap the screen trapped inside his phone."

"How do you do it?" said night."How do you wake up and shine?" "I keep it simple." said light "One day at a time"

[Sofie Strange · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the poems I really connected with, others not so much - and I think that is perfectly okay. It was only at page 137 i started highlighting my favorite poems so I might go back and read it again, just so I Can highlight them.🌞

[Tia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sissay writes about a variety of different topics, from fun and uplifting to dark and saddening. Reading these poems is like reading Sissay’s life, you read about breakups, depressions but also the more happy things like the beautiful of the world.

Thank you to Canongate for my copy of this book!

[Lucsbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Look, this is short, fast and uplifting. There isn't anyone anywhere that wouldn't benefit and cheer up by reading this book.
Thank you to Canongate for kindly sending me this copy

[🌶 peppersocks 🧦 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reflections and lessons learned/the content of this book made me feel…
“Translation depending on the language of the heart
the darker the ending
the lighter the start”

This felt like a real honour to hear the beautiful, wise and wordplayed pieces performed by the author. How can anyone have a bad day after listening to this gorgeousness of a powerful short injection of joy, even on a dark autumn morning 🍂

[Neil Harrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some very thoughtful poems. Will enjoy re-reading. Thinking about the use of description and how many ways light is characterized.

[Nicky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sweetness and light, profound and humorous, deep and wide, intellectual and ludicrous, happy and wistful … Lemn Sissay’s new compilation evokes all emotions. Wonderful.

[Tim Frankland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful

[Chloe Emmerson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this collection. Lemn sissay is wonderful

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Uplifting, soul-soothing, thought-provoking. To get the most out of this collection, I intend to go back, reread and savour these four line poems over the days and weeks to come.

[Imogen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty, powerful, and most importantly SHORT poems!
(I'm still trying to read as many books as possible to count towards my reading challenge!)

[tatiana.aka.tati · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were a few really sweet poems in this collection but it wasn't anything groundbreaking for me personally.

“We are wildflowers
Wild as the wind
Wild as the dawn
Wild within”

"The lesson of dawn is subtle and sublime
Take it easy but take it all
One day at a time"

[Meg Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Keep it in the day
Even if it’s night
Even if it’s heavy
Keep it light”

[rina dunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a huge Lemn Sissay fan. Anything he does I'm there for. His work makes me feel a sense of deep thoughtfulness and reflection. I was delighted when this beautiful little book fell through my letterbox.
I'm a huge fan of poetry also. However, I have to be able to relate to it to get that enjoyment.
Let The Light Pour In is the perfect title for this book because that's exactly what they felt like. Light.
Each poem is 4 short sentences long, and it never felt like too little, I read these poems before getting out of bed in the morning with a nice hot drink and would absolutely recommend doing the same. Full of warmth and so much emotion, the words are so life-affirming. From dusk to the beauty of dawn, the moon and the stars, love and grief, writing, and existing these poems are just beautiful.
I don't know how Lemn does it he manages to evoke so much emotion. This book was perfect for me, It was the perfect time. I've been going through some things, and it just feels like fate that I picked it up now! Thank you, Lemn.