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Three Lines
Grace Black takes her love of poetic brevity and brings you a compilation for the soul. She weaves emotive verse and naked prose in a minimalist format and carries you on a journey through life, love, and loss of the heart.
132 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2015
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20 people want to read
About the author
Grace Black
14 books19 followersGrace Black mingles with words as she navigates this realm.
“If you reveal everything, bare every feeling, ask for understanding, you lose something crucial to your sense of yourself. You need to know things that others don't know. It's what no one knows about you that allows you to know yourself.”
― Don DeLillo, Point Omega
“If you reveal everything, bare every feeling, ask for understanding, you lose something crucial to your sense of yourself. You need to know things that others don't know. It's what no one knows about you that allows you to know yourself.”
― Don DeLillo, Point Omega
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 11, 2015
This collection of ink splattered in brevity — three line poems — is dedicated to “you.” The “you” being anyone that’s experienced loss, heartache and pain, which makes reading this a surefire exhibit in bleeding monuments to those memories, as most people can relate to those emotions, I imagine.
The author, Grace Black, dabbles in the dichotomous pull of love: its ability to take and give pain in equal measure, as she noted in a recent interview.
Many of the three line poems are visceral, as she intended, and engage in wordplay or play off of nature themes (ships at sea, for instance, get a few mentions, as does the moon). Others are, in a sense, meta-poetry, playing on the act of writing itself and/or still connecting it to love-loss. Spilling ink, often a metaphor for spilling blood, is woven throughout many of the pieces. Such as, "Weight,":
He was living poetry
Marrow clinging prose
Lying heavy on the lungs
Others meditate on life itself and dance within the parameters of Big Questions, like “Eye”:
We see the world but prefer to stay
One step removed, one step away
We sit, we see, we write our view
Brokenness, deception, betrayal and defeat are all common threads upholding the tapestry of painful poetry here. In one sense, Black has given us an “out,” with the brevity. We only suffer briefly, experiencing whatever manifest the poem in question, but in the other sense, that “out” is brief as we turn to the next and then the next. It’s brevity, but brevity that’s unrelenting — in a good way. It’s like drive-by-shooting prose.
Time is also a theme, which there’s a meta conversation to have again about the aforementioned brevity, but one of Black’s favorite sayings is that there is no forgotten love. Such is evidence by the lackadaisical way in which time crawls by through the puddles of blood left in love’s wake. “Retrograde” is a great example of this:
Sleep doesn’t take
Time merely ticks
Ballet of shadows on my soul
In the interest of not replicating all of the poems here and doing the reader a disservice of experiencing these on their own, I’ll suffice it to say my favorites (in no order) were, “Unobtainable,” “Supine,” “Deadline,” “Abject,” and, “Garden.”
Let me put it this way: If you’re a fan of poetry, as I am, this is like a pocket-sized grenade of explosive ink and if you’re not a fan of poetry, perhaps this’ll be a great introduction for you to see what the medium is like. After all, it’s not as if you’re tasked with reading 40 lines for one poem. Three lines. That’s it. But there is so much in that “it.”
The author, Grace Black, dabbles in the dichotomous pull of love: its ability to take and give pain in equal measure, as she noted in a recent interview.
Many of the three line poems are visceral, as she intended, and engage in wordplay or play off of nature themes (ships at sea, for instance, get a few mentions, as does the moon). Others are, in a sense, meta-poetry, playing on the act of writing itself and/or still connecting it to love-loss. Spilling ink, often a metaphor for spilling blood, is woven throughout many of the pieces. Such as, "Weight,":
He was living poetry
Marrow clinging prose
Lying heavy on the lungs
Others meditate on life itself and dance within the parameters of Big Questions, like “Eye”:
We see the world but prefer to stay
One step removed, one step away
We sit, we see, we write our view
Brokenness, deception, betrayal and defeat are all common threads upholding the tapestry of painful poetry here. In one sense, Black has given us an “out,” with the brevity. We only suffer briefly, experiencing whatever manifest the poem in question, but in the other sense, that “out” is brief as we turn to the next and then the next. It’s brevity, but brevity that’s unrelenting — in a good way. It’s like drive-by-shooting prose.
Time is also a theme, which there’s a meta conversation to have again about the aforementioned brevity, but one of Black’s favorite sayings is that there is no forgotten love. Such is evidence by the lackadaisical way in which time crawls by through the puddles of blood left in love’s wake. “Retrograde” is a great example of this:
Sleep doesn’t take
Time merely ticks
Ballet of shadows on my soul
In the interest of not replicating all of the poems here and doing the reader a disservice of experiencing these on their own, I’ll suffice it to say my favorites (in no order) were, “Unobtainable,” “Supine,” “Deadline,” “Abject,” and, “Garden.”
Let me put it this way: If you’re a fan of poetry, as I am, this is like a pocket-sized grenade of explosive ink and if you’re not a fan of poetry, perhaps this’ll be a great introduction for you to see what the medium is like. After all, it’s not as if you’re tasked with reading 40 lines for one poem. Three lines. That’s it. But there is so much in that “it.”
May 7, 2015
Yesterday, I received "Three Lines" by Grace Black.
I read the book in two days.
I'm not a big reader of books, I love them, but I just fall asleep generally when I'm reading. So, that deters me from reading a lot.
So, there you go on the time frame on how long it should take to read through her book.
The poems are short, just 3 lines as the title says. I recommend reading the book several times and pick out the ones you enjoy the most and reread them.
I found 32 poems that called
to me. I'll give you some of my favorite titles so you can check them out. I don't want to give to much information and ruin the book for you.
I like the look of the book as a visual stimulant and the cover has a nice smooth texture.
Which is great for tactile readers.
Some of the poems I enjoyed were.
Sands: on page 2
Compost: Page 7
Freedom: page 47
Gala: page 49
Blurred page: 114
All her poems are great. These were just the ones that made my mouth water. Made me want to reread them. Made me want to suggest that you read them.
I highly recommend her book for the avid reader and the book avoider. Both these types of readers will enjoy "Three Lines" by Grace Black.
I give this book 5 stars.
It's a quick read, but enjoyable. Something you'll want to reread over and over again. Something you'll be telling your friends about, sharing on Facebook and tweeting before you know it.
I read the book in two days.
I'm not a big reader of books, I love them, but I just fall asleep generally when I'm reading. So, that deters me from reading a lot.
So, there you go on the time frame on how long it should take to read through her book.
The poems are short, just 3 lines as the title says. I recommend reading the book several times and pick out the ones you enjoy the most and reread them.
I found 32 poems that called
to me. I'll give you some of my favorite titles so you can check them out. I don't want to give to much information and ruin the book for you.
I like the look of the book as a visual stimulant and the cover has a nice smooth texture.
Which is great for tactile readers.
Some of the poems I enjoyed were.
Sands: on page 2
Compost: Page 7
Freedom: page 47
Gala: page 49
Blurred page: 114
All her poems are great. These were just the ones that made my mouth water. Made me want to reread them. Made me want to suggest that you read them.
I highly recommend her book for the avid reader and the book avoider. Both these types of readers will enjoy "Three Lines" by Grace Black.
I give this book 5 stars.
It's a quick read, but enjoyable. Something you'll want to reread over and over again. Something you'll be telling your friends about, sharing on Facebook and tweeting before you know it.
May 7, 2015
This book of poetry may be small in size, but it does not lack heart and soul. Beautifully written three line poems speak literal volumes. Each of the poems are written as stand-alone pieces, yet they all flow together such perfect style and 'Grace'. Black's pen and paper make for an excellent union. She speaks from a true voice, and like the back of the book says 'a heart unedited.' The cover of the book itself is done in beautiful simplicity. Less really is more.
2 of my favorites from the book:
"Death grows in rows
And she ties her shoes
In seasonal gloom"
Mundane
"All the memories
Puddles on pavement
Never getting wet"
Period
2 of my favorites from the book:
"Death grows in rows
And she ties her shoes
In seasonal gloom"
Mundane
"All the memories
Puddles on pavement
Never getting wet"
Period
August 1, 2015
I love poetry and I enjoy reading it. When I came across this book, I decided to download it after reading all of the good reviews. I like the idea of having 3 line poetry. This is such a creative and unique concept, which is not like the other poetry books that I have read before in the past. I could tell that the author really unleashed her soul in this book and let the reader in to her deep inner thoughts. Not only is this book emotional, it also causes you to think about the prose and what it could mean. I felt as though the author was "naked" and truly baring her soul to us. My favorite was "Weight" and I truly appreciated the words in that poem. I hope Grace will come out with another book since I enjoyed this one so much.
July 31, 2015
Stunning, bare, soul-dissolving. Black possesses incredible economy of words. Three lines is all she needs to capture, strip, and feed the mind.
October 29, 2016
Raw. Edgy. Succinctly smooth. Three Lines... packs individual themes of emotion on every page, with brevity... and brilliance.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews