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Sunbreak: Notes on Hope
Notes on Hope , from breakout social media poet Donovan Beck, is a rousing collection of poetry and prose written in an effort to create a world in which poetry books are not just expressions of grief or loss but also ones of optimism and light.
Led by deep curiosity, Sunbreak by Donovan Beck aims to give real and poetic reflections on beautiful moments of hope that can be found even in a challenging world.
Donovan Beck is a multi-hyphenate storyteller dedicated to redefining how we talk about ourselves and the world around us, especially online; Notes on Hope is a perfect encapsulation of his mission. Like sitting up late at night with your friends thinking about the meaning of life, Sunbreak is warm, hopeful, and full of sunlit potential for good.
Led by deep curiosity, Sunbreak by Donovan Beck aims to give real and poetic reflections on beautiful moments of hope that can be found even in a challenging world.
Donovan Beck is a multi-hyphenate storyteller dedicated to redefining how we talk about ourselves and the world around us, especially online; Notes on Hope is a perfect encapsulation of his mission. Like sitting up late at night with your friends thinking about the meaning of life, Sunbreak is warm, hopeful, and full of sunlit potential for good.
176 pages, Paperback
Published March 11, 2025
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18 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 3, 2025
I knew I’d love it. I loved Beck’s first collection. But this? My goodness this is magic.
August 9, 2025
a great books of poems from a young poet!
some land especially well, some are a bit simplistic. all in all, I'm impressed this author did the work to pull this selection together and get published and am feeling a bit too lazy to write much more right now
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Notes from while I was reading:
I'm in a later stage of recovery and this feels like just the right book for where I'm at rn
when he said to find things in common with people instead of what's different. I looked at each of my male coworkers. he's cold, like me, bc of his sweater. we're going to visit a vendor together, me and that one. and the other guy, and the fourth guy, I know there was something I found for each of them. I'll find something else tomorrow. it's so hard with people, with 'bros,' but so easy with my cat, to see how we are the same
____
I used to think a lot about my older self, older holly. older holly has always been there to support me, when I was sixteen, twenty-three, twenty-nine. and she still is there, sixty-year-old holly, little-old-lady holly. smiling sweetly, more to herself than anyone. simultaneously not fully knowing what's going on but also knowing exactly what's going on.
but lately I've thought more about how twenty-year-old holly supports the current version of me. she didn't realize she was doing so. but she had a way of being in touch with herself that was still largely unevaluated, nor fearing evaluation, unaware there may even come a time when she was deemed 'not good enough,' and thus fully honest. she knew what she cared about and was interested in, and what she did not care about and was not interested in. it didn't matter what other people thought of who she was, with their words, with their money, with their willingness to engage with her in the world.
and now I look back at her. I need her. because I've grown in ways that have let me find stable employment, let me build stable relationships, in ways that are not fully dishonest to me, but ways that still don't fully feed my soul. and suddenly, they don't feed my belly either, as they were expected to, or my need for social connection. I didn't think I was this wrong in my direction, my decisions. I'm so confused as to what I could have done instead such that the world would not have beaten me down like this.
but then, twenty-year-old holly reminds me who I am. seventeen-year-old holly, twenty-five-year-old holly show me what I care about, show my need for creativity, balance, being in touch with my soul and letting my soul be touched by others. she shows me these are not shortcomings. that some things are intrinsically valuable to me even if the world ascribes no transactional value to them. they can be so valuable that they have every right to compete for my time and energy, alongside the things that build the life a person is expected to want—job security, house, kids, time outdoors, travel, good food. and there's something about this book that speaks with a similar voice as that budding adult version of me who guides me so frequently lately.
____
It's funny that I'm reading this right now, because I keep telling myself I'm not allowed to hope anymore. And then here we are.
some land especially well, some are a bit simplistic. all in all, I'm impressed this author did the work to pull this selection together and get published and am feeling a bit too lazy to write much more right now
----
Notes from while I was reading:
I'm in a later stage of recovery and this feels like just the right book for where I'm at rn
when he said to find things in common with people instead of what's different. I looked at each of my male coworkers. he's cold, like me, bc of his sweater. we're going to visit a vendor together, me and that one. and the other guy, and the fourth guy, I know there was something I found for each of them. I'll find something else tomorrow. it's so hard with people, with 'bros,' but so easy with my cat, to see how we are the same
____
I used to think a lot about my older self, older holly. older holly has always been there to support me, when I was sixteen, twenty-three, twenty-nine. and she still is there, sixty-year-old holly, little-old-lady holly. smiling sweetly, more to herself than anyone. simultaneously not fully knowing what's going on but also knowing exactly what's going on.
but lately I've thought more about how twenty-year-old holly supports the current version of me. she didn't realize she was doing so. but she had a way of being in touch with herself that was still largely unevaluated, nor fearing evaluation, unaware there may even come a time when she was deemed 'not good enough,' and thus fully honest. she knew what she cared about and was interested in, and what she did not care about and was not interested in. it didn't matter what other people thought of who she was, with their words, with their money, with their willingness to engage with her in the world.
and now I look back at her. I need her. because I've grown in ways that have let me find stable employment, let me build stable relationships, in ways that are not fully dishonest to me, but ways that still don't fully feed my soul. and suddenly, they don't feed my belly either, as they were expected to, or my need for social connection. I didn't think I was this wrong in my direction, my decisions. I'm so confused as to what I could have done instead such that the world would not have beaten me down like this.
but then, twenty-year-old holly reminds me who I am. seventeen-year-old holly, twenty-five-year-old holly show me what I care about, show my need for creativity, balance, being in touch with my soul and letting my soul be touched by others. she shows me these are not shortcomings. that some things are intrinsically valuable to me even if the world ascribes no transactional value to them. they can be so valuable that they have every right to compete for my time and energy, alongside the things that build the life a person is expected to want—job security, house, kids, time outdoors, travel, good food. and there's something about this book that speaks with a similar voice as that budding adult version of me who guides me so frequently lately.
____
It's funny that I'm reading this right now, because I keep telling myself I'm not allowed to hope anymore. And then here we are.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews