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Shapeshifter: Poems
- GenresPoetry
160 pages, Paperback
Published March 4, 2025
24 people are currently reading
180 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 6, 2025
Just finished. So woman, so mother, so seeker, so full of “be soft, but open your mouth and scream!”
Five stars, no notes.
Five stars, no notes.
May 5, 2025
5⭐️
It can be hard to rate a poetry collection, because who am I as a reader to judge the authors collection of experiences? Despite my hesitancy to rate this, Shapeshifter was a beautiful collection of poems that chronologically spanned a few years of time and held such deep symbolism and meaning in such few words.
In a world of “Instagram poetry” that is visually aesthetic with little to no actual depth, Shapeshifter is a great contrast to this new norm with meaningful writing, substance, and formatting that someone would want to share on social media or print and hang in their home.
The prose was raw and full of emotion. Many statements made me think to myself “when is the last time I paused and lived in the present? Do I truly love my body or do I just say I do as another way to pretend or lie to myself? What are things I needed from my parents that I can do now to heal my inner child? I need to stop and take a deep breath and feel the air and listen to my heart beat and see the sun shine around me for once.” These thoughts and more continued throughout the collection as Bowman embraces the changes in her life and grieves who she once was.
I am SO glad I picked up this collection and have already recommended it to someone who I will be sharing this with soon.
It can be hard to rate a poetry collection, because who am I as a reader to judge the authors collection of experiences? Despite my hesitancy to rate this, Shapeshifter was a beautiful collection of poems that chronologically spanned a few years of time and held such deep symbolism and meaning in such few words.
In a world of “Instagram poetry” that is visually aesthetic with little to no actual depth, Shapeshifter is a great contrast to this new norm with meaningful writing, substance, and formatting that someone would want to share on social media or print and hang in their home.
The prose was raw and full of emotion. Many statements made me think to myself “when is the last time I paused and lived in the present? Do I truly love my body or do I just say I do as another way to pretend or lie to myself? What are things I needed from my parents that I can do now to heal my inner child? I need to stop and take a deep breath and feel the air and listen to my heart beat and see the sun shine around me for once.” These thoughts and more continued throughout the collection as Bowman embraces the changes in her life and grieves who she once was.
I am SO glad I picked up this collection and have already recommended it to someone who I will be sharing this with soon.
February 18, 2025
Wonderful poetry - some makes you laugh and some cuts to the quick. L.E. Bowman is one of my favorites!
October 14, 2025
Not the kind of classic poetry, but that goes straight to your soul anyway. Topics everyone can relate to: first heartbreak, then finding love, feminity, self love, becoming a mother, surviving loss, going through life even when it is not easy. This poetry book feels like a warm blanket over my heart.
March 20, 2025
This is the first book I read from L.E.Bowman. I like the fact that she tackles topics such as family, aging, miscarriage, body shaming and nature. The philosophical touch of her poems is very original and she makes you question things about life. Highly recommend for anyone who is struggling with miscarriage, but also wants to enjoy life a little bit more.
Joy is found in the little things and for that, I am grateful. This is the biggest lesson I learned from these poems.
Joy is found in the little things and for that, I am grateful. This is the biggest lesson I learned from these poems.
March 20, 2025
3.5⭐️
I really enjoyed this collection, and specifically the poems at the beginning. I found them impactful and that they sat with me for some time.
I continued to enjoy the collection as I moved through the pages, and while I could not relate necessarily to several of the poems, I found they were still deeply emotional and moving.
I really enjoyed this collection, and specifically the poems at the beginning. I found them impactful and that they sat with me for some time.
I continued to enjoy the collection as I moved through the pages, and while I could not relate necessarily to several of the poems, I found they were still deeply emotional and moving.
October 23, 2025
A collection of poems that I think naturally flows from the previous two - moving away a bit from the instapoet influence of What I Learned from the Trees and maturing a lot from the snippets in Evolution of a Girl. The content has matured along with the author, with a lot of poems focusing on motherhood, marriage, body image, and feeling overwhelmed with the day-by-day while trying to find everyday beauty.
The style is free verse moving into prose poems, and the wording is still pretty direct and accessible. Some of it still borders on feeling like an elevated social media post - for example, one called Adulting (It's called Balance, Darling) ends with "Tomorrow, I'll wake up to a sink full of dishes. Tonight, I'm finishing a $7 bottle of wine and sleeping with my husband instead." These are probably the lowlights of the book for me.
Luckily, they're outweighed by many better pieces - I liked a very similar one in subject, Home, a lot more: "My hair is turning grey, and my stomach has the look of someone who eats okay and doesn't sleep well. ... My husband grasps my curves and calls me sexy. My son clings to my neck and calls me home." Or, in My Son Brings Me Things That He Finds Interesting, "... He rolls in the grass with the family dog, unabashedly learning her pleasures. He follows her into alcoves, bushes grown over, sacred, hidden places you have to dream of to find. ... As the sun dips, he hands me a sprig of clover. I don't need to count the leaves to know how lucky it is."
In a book that tends to skip the metaphor (or drop it before developing it fully), one of my favorite pieces ended up being an extended one. In Mother: "The world is a death trap, but have you noticed her beauty? Even with her snarling lips, even with her snapping jaws. Those lips contain a tongue that licks new life until eyes are open. Those teeth gently carry young. Isn't everything about creation and destruction? Aren't we all born and spend a lifetime slowly dying? Haven't we all wrapped our fingers around someone's throat and called it love?"
The overall collection is incredibly relatable, full of warmth, and a lot of what I was really wanting after reading the last two. I'm looking forward to the next!
The style is free verse moving into prose poems, and the wording is still pretty direct and accessible. Some of it still borders on feeling like an elevated social media post - for example, one called Adulting (It's called Balance, Darling) ends with "Tomorrow, I'll wake up to a sink full of dishes. Tonight, I'm finishing a $7 bottle of wine and sleeping with my husband instead." These are probably the lowlights of the book for me.
Luckily, they're outweighed by many better pieces - I liked a very similar one in subject, Home, a lot more: "My hair is turning grey, and my stomach has the look of someone who eats okay and doesn't sleep well. ... My husband grasps my curves and calls me sexy. My son clings to my neck and calls me home." Or, in My Son Brings Me Things That He Finds Interesting, "... He rolls in the grass with the family dog, unabashedly learning her pleasures. He follows her into alcoves, bushes grown over, sacred, hidden places you have to dream of to find. ... As the sun dips, he hands me a sprig of clover. I don't need to count the leaves to know how lucky it is."
In a book that tends to skip the metaphor (or drop it before developing it fully), one of my favorite pieces ended up being an extended one. In Mother: "The world is a death trap, but have you noticed her beauty? Even with her snarling lips, even with her snapping jaws. Those lips contain a tongue that licks new life until eyes are open. Those teeth gently carry young. Isn't everything about creation and destruction? Aren't we all born and spend a lifetime slowly dying? Haven't we all wrapped our fingers around someone's throat and called it love?"
The overall collection is incredibly relatable, full of warmth, and a lot of what I was really wanting after reading the last two. I'm looking forward to the next!
June 2, 2025
~Thank you to Button Poetry for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review~
A collection of poetry about motherhood, womanhood, and self-love. While I enjoyed the range of forms played around with in this collection, I ultimately found most of the poems to be underdeveloped/unfinished. Each piece was similarly self-help-y in tone and I didn't find myself connected to much of the language due to the frequent use of rhetorical questions, "you" pronouns, and vague imagery. With this said, I can tell L.E. Bowman is a passionate poet and I hope she continues to learn, grow, and write.
A collection of poetry about motherhood, womanhood, and self-love. While I enjoyed the range of forms played around with in this collection, I ultimately found most of the poems to be underdeveloped/unfinished. Each piece was similarly self-help-y in tone and I didn't find myself connected to much of the language due to the frequent use of rhetorical questions, "you" pronouns, and vague imagery. With this said, I can tell L.E. Bowman is a passionate poet and I hope she continues to learn, grow, and write.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews