Mornings You Might Wake Up In: Near-Essays and Almost-Poems

by Hayley G. Hoover

Mornings You Might Wake Up In is a collection of 80 pieces that live somewhere between poem and essay. Lyrical, dreamy freeze-frames of the moments that make us human. A sparkling night out with friends, a doomscrolling anxiety spiral, a sunrise cup of tea with the person you never stop falling in love with.

Romantic, reflective, and deeply sensory, this book invites readers to notice their own lives more closely, from the ocean's salty tingle, to the contact nap oxytocin rush, to the crystal vase that casts rainbows on the table when the light hits just right.

155 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 4, 2025

Reviews

[Somesh Selvachandran · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 awesome stars.

[Alyssa · Rating 5 out of 5]

How I feel about this book:
Its almost like it’s 10 pm and your husband is telling you that you should go to bed cause you have a busy day at work tomorrow (which you spent the whole evening complaining about) but you’re like nah bro I’m reading on my phone and he just rolls his eyes and tells you to please not wake him when you come to your senses and give your body the sleep it craves and then suddenly it’s like 1:13 am and you’re like ridiculously delirious from the poignant (yet cozy?) vignettes you just read (and maybe also from the fact that it’s 1 am) and you just want to share the happiness and gratitude and laughter that these stories brought you with the one you love most but then you remember his one request so you write and share this five star review with the world instead.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Need more “lyrical, dreamy freeze-frames of the moments that make us human” genre.

Also should be required reading for all humans.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

For my own subjective feelings by the second half it was getting too much about romantic love, but the first half really touched me enough, I think I was in the perfect headspace to read it and will come back to this later. 

[Colleen Hein · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection is a beautiful surprise. I have a new favorite poet. Fall into these poems and lose yourself in the delight of the extraordinary pleasures of moments worth remembering.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, Hayley.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars