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root
root is an intimate digest of short poems and navigational communication. a 40-page journal appears in the back of the book for readers to record their thoughts and realities. author, melissa tripp's hope is that this book will provoke reflection and depth through a subset of underground truths.
484 pages, Paperback
First published March 22, 2015
26 people are currently reading
319 people want to read
About the author
Melissa Marie Tripp
3 books23 followersMelissa Marie Tripp is a black stud-identified lesbian writer and entrepreneur from Boston, Massachusetts. Her work explores and expresses themes of personal empowerment including leadership through vulnerability, love, mental health awareness, healing from trauma, and the advocacy of self love. She was named one of "12 Female Poets to Watch" by Nylon Magazine in 2016. Her work has been seen on ABC7, NFL Network, HelloGiggles, and more. She is also the creator of the media company Women Who Write Are Dope.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
December 24, 2017
Absolutely adored this. I somehow picked it up just when I needed it the most, without even realizing it and cried my heart out but it's worth it honestly. There are so many topics that are close to my heart here and the rawness of it all made me even more emotional. A fantastic journal-book really.
December 11, 2017
I feel always weird reviving poetry books, especially if they were just ok in my mind. I see poetry as a very personal thing to the writer and for the reader and I feel really sad when I didn't enjoy that much someone's collection. At the end of the day, this poetry book is so long that I found poems that I love and once that I didn't -this is more than ok but I don't want to leave a longer review.
May 18, 2017
More like 3,5/5
I really liked this book at the beginning and for a large part of it, it was very empowering. I highlighted a lot of poems and bookmarked a lot of pages.
But it ended up being quite repetitive by the end.
I'll try to write a better review whenever I have time (but I'm working until mid-June so I'm not sure when), because this book totally deserve one :)
I really liked this book at the beginning and for a large part of it, it was very empowering. I highlighted a lot of poems and bookmarked a lot of pages.
But it ended up being quite repetitive by the end.
I'll try to write a better review whenever I have time (but I'm working until mid-June so I'm not sure when), because this book totally deserve one :)
January 7, 2018
Five stars. Truly stunning.
Five stars. This is a truly stunning collection of words that you can feel come straight from the authors heart and soul and into the readers! I would definitely recommend this beautifully written book.
Five stars. This is a truly stunning collection of words that you can feel come straight from the authors heart and soul and into the readers! I would definitely recommend this beautifully written book.
February 18, 2020
This book is so quotable
dnf
May 8, 2017DNF at 20% because I can't flip the pages on my app anymore. I'll go back to this when I find a way to fix this bug.
June 17, 2024
My Review and Thoughts:
This is an amazing complex poetry book of dynamic wordplay and an imaginative truth of ideas, scenarios. Most of all it grabs the reader, and sends them into a bliss of excellence.
This is an emotional package of walkways into an array of personal inner self, and also the beating heart of an open road of discovery. Words can be powerful and Tripp makes those words come to life, beat as if a heart beats, care as if love personified page after page.
I really loved this book of poetry and sayings. So much came to life within my mind, heart and even my soul seemed to beckon for the page to be turned. It’s almost an understatement to call it a mere book of poetry, because it’s a book that shines as it's own unique reality.
The poetry is untitled. The thoughts are untitled. Each poem, or thought, or saying is an unmade vacant intensity that transcends off the page.
Tripp is like, a Guru of inner thoughts, a personal poetry that bleeds from the soul, A unique blend of short word play that becomes the reality of what poetry is all about, an emotional journey.
I find this book of beautiful and thoughtful word play, a complex intensity, that the mind falls in love with; that the heart beats with, and the soul can understand the inner most recesses of the words that come to life on these pages.
Tripp is able to take the reader, the poetry lover, into her thoughtful sayings, and allows the person to slowly understand, appreciate, remember and want to spread the word about this book.
I found myself reading each poem over and over, certain ones, stick deeply with you, and all of them are ones that become something you want to return to.
One of my favorites is so short and simple yet so telling that it really does linger with you:
============
love me so deep that
your roots are mine
and my roots are yours
if only you could see me
the way i see you when
you see me see us.
============
I highly recommend this book of sayings and poetry. I can't help put praise this unique blend of thoughts that own the page. Tripp truly understands the concept of word play. She is able to take thoughts, turn them into living, breathing reality.
root is a book I will return to often. A book I will express and recommend. It's a book I think will make a great present for any reader, or poetry lover, or poet. root is a book that sticks with you, and that is priceless in a world of constant variety of books. So many books are published today that come and go, but I feel root is a book that needs to be remembered and expressed. It is, in my viewpoint, a perfect book of poetry.
My Rating: 5 out of 5
This is an amazing complex poetry book of dynamic wordplay and an imaginative truth of ideas, scenarios. Most of all it grabs the reader, and sends them into a bliss of excellence.
This is an emotional package of walkways into an array of personal inner self, and also the beating heart of an open road of discovery. Words can be powerful and Tripp makes those words come to life, beat as if a heart beats, care as if love personified page after page.
I really loved this book of poetry and sayings. So much came to life within my mind, heart and even my soul seemed to beckon for the page to be turned. It’s almost an understatement to call it a mere book of poetry, because it’s a book that shines as it's own unique reality.
The poetry is untitled. The thoughts are untitled. Each poem, or thought, or saying is an unmade vacant intensity that transcends off the page.
Tripp is like, a Guru of inner thoughts, a personal poetry that bleeds from the soul, A unique blend of short word play that becomes the reality of what poetry is all about, an emotional journey.
I find this book of beautiful and thoughtful word play, a complex intensity, that the mind falls in love with; that the heart beats with, and the soul can understand the inner most recesses of the words that come to life on these pages.
Tripp is able to take the reader, the poetry lover, into her thoughtful sayings, and allows the person to slowly understand, appreciate, remember and want to spread the word about this book.
I found myself reading each poem over and over, certain ones, stick deeply with you, and all of them are ones that become something you want to return to.
One of my favorites is so short and simple yet so telling that it really does linger with you:
============
love me so deep that
your roots are mine
and my roots are yours
if only you could see me
the way i see you when
you see me see us.
============
I highly recommend this book of sayings and poetry. I can't help put praise this unique blend of thoughts that own the page. Tripp truly understands the concept of word play. She is able to take thoughts, turn them into living, breathing reality.
root is a book I will return to often. A book I will express and recommend. It's a book I think will make a great present for any reader, or poetry lover, or poet. root is a book that sticks with you, and that is priceless in a world of constant variety of books. So many books are published today that come and go, but I feel root is a book that needs to be remembered and expressed. It is, in my viewpoint, a perfect book of poetry.
My Rating: 5 out of 5
February 17, 2020
This… was… meh.
Pro points:
• Some of the poems were kind of powerful.
• The prose was amazing! I really enjoyed the prose.
• I could tell that it came from a place of emotion.
Con points:
• It was the kind of “poetry” that is just sentences. I wish that some of these sentences had been put together to make prose poetry that would’ve been way more powerful than all separated.
• It was really disjointed. Apart from the first part and the last part, the middle didn’t really seem to have a theme going all the way through. Sometimes the poems were about love, sometimes about heartbreak, sometimes about self-identity, and I couldn’t really figure out the point of them all being mixed up together. I prefer to have poems separated into meaningful categories – because when they are all shoved together, it doesn’t really make sense.
• Also – and this is a really, really harsh criticism – there were lots of poems about being a writer, but I didn’t feel like I was reading a writer. I felt like I was reading a teenager, maybe? The lack of punctuation – whilst, of course, was done for an effect – wasn’t what I would expect when I hear ‘writer’, and the actual vocabulary choice was really rather juvenile.
Overall – I don’t know why I keep reading these books. It’s clear they don’t agree with me! I can understand why people really loved this, but it’s not for me at all. There were a few poems I liked, and I could really feel the writer’s intention coming through, but not for me at all.
Pro points:
• Some of the poems were kind of powerful.
• The prose was amazing! I really enjoyed the prose.
• I could tell that it came from a place of emotion.
Con points:
• It was the kind of “poetry” that is just sentences. I wish that some of these sentences had been put together to make prose poetry that would’ve been way more powerful than all separated.
• It was really disjointed. Apart from the first part and the last part, the middle didn’t really seem to have a theme going all the way through. Sometimes the poems were about love, sometimes about heartbreak, sometimes about self-identity, and I couldn’t really figure out the point of them all being mixed up together. I prefer to have poems separated into meaningful categories – because when they are all shoved together, it doesn’t really make sense.
• Also – and this is a really, really harsh criticism – there were lots of poems about being a writer, but I didn’t feel like I was reading a writer. I felt like I was reading a teenager, maybe? The lack of punctuation – whilst, of course, was done for an effect – wasn’t what I would expect when I hear ‘writer’, and the actual vocabulary choice was really rather juvenile.
Overall – I don’t know why I keep reading these books. It’s clear they don’t agree with me! I can understand why people really loved this, but it’s not for me at all. There were a few poems I liked, and I could really feel the writer’s intention coming through, but not for me at all.
May 6, 2017
I am in the habit of only giving 5 stars to poetry if they strike my heart, maybe ignite tears. This collection is 5 stars.
I think I may have highlighted a good third of the poems, but they connected with where I am right now in my life. It's possible that this collection seems so honest and ebullient at the moment because some the messages in the poems were ones I needed to hear; to understand that where my life is now is part of a journey.
It's the transcendent nature of language that I can see a collation of letters that resonates with my very soul and makes understanding this life I have a little easier.
I think I may have highlighted a good third of the poems, but they connected with where I am right now in my life. It's possible that this collection seems so honest and ebullient at the moment because some the messages in the poems were ones I needed to hear; to understand that where my life is now is part of a journey.
It's the transcendent nature of language that I can see a collation of letters that resonates with my very soul and makes understanding this life I have a little easier.
June 29, 2017
Me encantó, en verdad...root es un libro que te hace pensar; los poemas tocan tantos temas como la aceptación de uno mismo, el perdón, la sanación y lo más importante el amor y sus repercusiones, en verdad, recomiendo que lo lean.
La manera en la que Melissa escribe te deja analizando todo lo que alguna vez hiciste y cómo te desenvolviste con las personas a tu alrededor, idk en verdad me encantó, lo volveré a leer una y otra vez, de eso estoy segura.
No le doy cinco estrellas porque hay algo que le faltó, aunque no pueda describir bien qué fue pero sí es un 4.75.
La manera en la que Melissa escribe te deja analizando todo lo que alguna vez hiciste y cómo te desenvolviste con las personas a tu alrededor, idk en verdad me encantó, lo volveré a leer una y otra vez, de eso estoy segura.
No le doy cinco estrellas porque hay algo que le faltó, aunque no pueda describir bien qué fue pero sí es un 4.75.
August 13, 2017
Incredible! This book takes you on a journey from beginning to end. The imagery she uses to set the table is well done. Many different styles and forms of poetry in this book. She pacts incredible power and perspective into each poem whether it's several stanzas or just a few lines. This is a book you can read over and over and look back to when you need answers or need to reflect.
August 17, 2017
Utterly Fantastic
First off, this is a lot to digest. Page wise but content wise as well. You will have poems where you have to let them sit with you. Process them. Explore them. Take your time.
This collection is a journey. Enjoy every single step.
First off, this is a lot to digest. Page wise but content wise as well. You will have poems where you have to let them sit with you. Process them. Explore them. Take your time.
This collection is a journey. Enjoy every single step.
August 17, 2017
First off, this is a lot to digest. Page wise but content wise as well. You will have poems where you have to let them sit with you. Process them. Explore them. Take your time.
This collection is a journey. Enjoy every single step.
This collection is a journey. Enjoy every single step.
May 10, 2017
excuse me while i dry my tears
May 17, 2017
I have no words.
August 4, 2017
Beautiful prose
I enjoyed many of the poems in this collection. Some resonated with me others I skimmed. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys good poetry.
I enjoyed many of the poems in this collection. Some resonated with me others I skimmed. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys good poetry.
October 8, 2017
4.5, This was Phenomenal! I highlighted and bookmarked in this kindle copy WAY more than i have any other copy of a kindle book i own, so many good lines a real piece of art
Want to read
December 25, 2023just didn't connect at all to the poetry
May 31, 2017
The journey in this collection is so expansive in its articulation. It's full of pain, love and growth. It's simply everything I adore in a good book of poems. I know I'll be returning to it again and again.
May 18, 2017
To all the readers: Root will touch you in ways only you can express. I swear once I started reading I couldn't stop. This book deserves 100 stars if possible.
To my wife: Words can never express how proud I am of you. I want you to know I'm your number one fan. And i'm Beyond grateful that I get to see all the behind the scenes of all your hard work. You touch my soul with each word. Keep making me proud baby.
To my wife: Words can never express how proud I am of you. I want you to know I'm your number one fan. And i'm Beyond grateful that I get to see all the behind the scenes of all your hard work. You touch my soul with each word. Keep making me proud baby.
June 4, 2017
it was just okay.
April 21, 2017
Needed this book for where I am currently in my life.
A lot of poetry books have been released on amazon, for free.
Because of this I was able to get my hands on this and a couple other well-known writings.
I didn't read this as a book, more like a journey and just being taken through by the writer to different groupings.
I loved this
To me it felt more like affirmations and teachings than a narrative.
A lot of poetry books have been released on amazon, for free.
Because of this I was able to get my hands on this and a couple other well-known writings.
I didn't read this as a book, more like a journey and just being taken through by the writer to different groupings.
I loved this
To me it felt more like affirmations and teachings than a narrative.
May 3, 2017
I didn't really feel connected to it and I found a lot of the poems to be really hard to follow.
March 17, 2018
Self Love poetry
I was excited to read this book as I've heard great things about Melissa's poetry! I enjoyed the book but I wanted the poems to be more open to interpretation than they were - I've read a lot of modern poetry on self love and this book sometimes verged on preaching.
Having said that, there were some lovely truisms throughout and I think a lot of people will be able to connect with this writing.
I was excited to read this book as I've heard great things about Melissa's poetry! I enjoyed the book but I wanted the poems to be more open to interpretation than they were - I've read a lot of modern poetry on self love and this book sometimes verged on preaching.
Having said that, there were some lovely truisms throughout and I think a lot of people will be able to connect with this writing.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews