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Grocery List Poems
If the word stanza means "room", then this book is an orchard. Rhiannon McGavin crafts poems with scraps of the everyday, from dream diaries to postcards. She scavenges for healing inside of lines that rise and break like bread. Led by emotions "real as the mosaic air between screen and projector", McGavin explores what it means to become your own calendar.
- GenresPoetry
80 pages, Paperback
Published June 20, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
August 21, 2021
“say the last time/ someone touched me with a tender feeling/ and I’ll eat the clock.”
stunning poetry
stunning poetry
September 14, 2021
oh wow WOW wow wow. need to sit down & think about this some more. & will most certainly reread it tomorrow morning with a fresh head because i am just so full of love & wonder right now. rhiannon mcgavin is a genius.
July 4, 2021
I read this on my vacation and it was an amazing beach read <3 rhiannon mcgavin is my fav poet ever
January 16, 2022
“3 pm on a Tuesday & I’ll bite the calendar if it looks at me like that again” (21).
November 26, 2023
About 20-ish pages into this collection, I searched up Rhiannon McGavin and read the first poem I found of hers online: Art Class. If you like poetry to any extent, I suggest to read it. It felt like the type of flowing, indirect work that I aspire to write like in poetry - it read really easily. I also had no idea that McGavin did spoken word in high school, and fell down a slight rabbit hole with that...
This collection was good! I would read it again but as a physical copy - I think that reading it on Libby messed up the poem structure and I'm not sure if the stanza breaks were supposed to be where they were...and the wonderful thing about poetry is the pauses/breaks that evoke all sorts of emphasis. Sadly I can't do anything to confirm the format at the moment, but McGavin writes with really powerful language that was effective nonetheless. Even when tackling bigger themes like joy and loss, love and pain, this really felt like a grocery list with all the vivid vocabulary choices that were utilized. The small references to orange peels, persimmons, bright colors and lights were especially nice and so this felt like little story snippets of everyday life.
My favorite poems were the ones with two "columns" (for lack of a better word); it took me half a poem to realize how I could be reading them. McGavin's writing flows like a narrative style. This has motivated me to find/read more poetry books (and there is in fact one on my reading queue!)
This collection was good! I would read it again but as a physical copy - I think that reading it on Libby messed up the poem structure and I'm not sure if the stanza breaks were supposed to be where they were...and the wonderful thing about poetry is the pauses/breaks that evoke all sorts of emphasis. Sadly I can't do anything to confirm the format at the moment, but McGavin writes with really powerful language that was effective nonetheless. Even when tackling bigger themes like joy and loss, love and pain, this really felt like a grocery list with all the vivid vocabulary choices that were utilized. The small references to orange peels, persimmons, bright colors and lights were especially nice and so this felt like little story snippets of everyday life.
My favorite poems were the ones with two "columns" (for lack of a better word); it took me half a poem to realize how I could be reading them. McGavin's writing flows like a narrative style. This has motivated me to find/read more poetry books (and there is in fact one on my reading queue!)
November 25, 2022
I’m gonna come back to this collection time and time again
wow
wow
March 17, 2024
i typically don’t feel very moved by poetry, but some of these poems so beautifully captured the gritty, mundane, wistful uncertainty of life. her descriptions of la reminded me not to take the blooming magnolias, persimmon trees, or billboards for granted.
July 8, 2021
for me the triumvirate is rhiannon, rilke and ginsberg; so, of course this was everything I needed: pith and frozen blackberries thawing in afternoon light— g-d, lying on my living room couch.
December 31, 2021
i almost never read poetry, so this isn't a v qualified review, but i really enjoyed grocery list poems! to a v inexperienced eye, mcgavin's poems were so delightful, each poem featuring mcgavin's quiet revelations, which were all v insightful and intelligent. i loved her imagery and the lush prose of her writing. the excerpts and quotations from artists she admires as section (?) dividers was really creative as well, and i really enjoyed seeing how she weaved her jewish heritage and culture into the collection. v v v good words! so insightful and lovely! how does she do it !! - 4.5 stars.
January 12, 2024
let’s sayyy 3.75 stars.
i have Engram & Love language bookmarked to return to as often as i can.
there were many incredible moments in here!
right away, in Pith: “Your coat pockets / flicker with grocery lists and receipts, the gap / between your desire and ability.”
in Crush: “with nothing new to worship but next time, / next time.”
“You remember / being told it was the whole ocean/ rushing in the conch when it was / only your own pulse echoed / but you still hold it up, / hear your blood sing.”
in Habit: “I know I’m older when I stop wanting / to strangle the girl I was and try to hold her instead.”
in Fire sale: “I have lullabies for children I do not”
in Mur Murs (1981): “living in the sense that they can be destroyed”
in Song written in your leftover hair: “Yes yes even when I wash / my own hair, I find / these muddy tomato sprouts / tangled on the shower wall, / cursive in a language / I am learning / again I sound out / the dark scrawl of your postcards ~Wish / you were here you were here~”
& many many more :)
i have Engram & Love language bookmarked to return to as often as i can.
there were many incredible moments in here!
right away, in Pith: “Your coat pockets / flicker with grocery lists and receipts, the gap / between your desire and ability.”
in Crush: “with nothing new to worship but next time, / next time.”
“You remember / being told it was the whole ocean/ rushing in the conch when it was / only your own pulse echoed / but you still hold it up, / hear your blood sing.”
in Habit: “I know I’m older when I stop wanting / to strangle the girl I was and try to hold her instead.”
in Fire sale: “I have lullabies for children I do not”
in Mur Murs (1981): “living in the sense that they can be destroyed”
in Song written in your leftover hair: “Yes yes even when I wash / my own hair, I find / these muddy tomato sprouts / tangled on the shower wall, / cursive in a language / I am learning / again I sound out / the dark scrawl of your postcards ~Wish / you were here you were here~”
& many many more :)
Read
September 9, 2024Bought last year at the Brooklyn Book Festival. It was at the Not a Cult table which published the book that got me back into poetry (Notes on Shapeshifting). I read Manifesto in an Unknown Language before I started the book and loved it.
FAVS:
Manifesto in an Unknown Language
Overcast
Dream Diaries (esp #13)
Engram
FAVS:
Manifesto in an Unknown Language
Overcast
Dream Diaries (esp #13)
Engram
September 24, 2021
funnily enough, i am considering starting a calendar collection.
(also! the acknowledgments need to be updated in the next edition)
(also! the acknowledgments need to be updated in the next edition)
May 15, 2024
Youth poems which search… the ambling of culture in young years sketches long seasons of grief in the brunt of glow
April 23, 2023
(Earnest warning) This collection made me so happy and I’m so glad I found it at the book fair!! Rhiannon has been so inspiring to me for almost a decade and her voice is so strong in these poems that it felt like coming home.
“The kind of love in my steps / where empty rooms are only rooms you’ve left”
“The kind of love in my steps / where empty rooms are only rooms you’ve left”
did-not-finish
August 26, 2023I will finish you later!!!!
July 20, 2021
I’m certainly not the best at reading and understanding poetry which makes me wholly unqualified to rate this sophomore collection of poems from McGavin, but truly she never ceases to amaze me away with her poems. You can see significant growth in her writing from her first collection, Branches, to this one.
Even though I’m not the best at deciphering poetry, I always go by the very basic senses of what the poem made me feel. I love the “slice of life” type of poems that McGavin writes. These very average things that everyone encounters on a day to day basis but McGavin can make them beautiful.
By far my favorite section was the Dream Diary with the numbered poems. As with most poems and collections of poetry, it seems the reader can enjoy the works a lot more if they know some basic information about the poet themselves and this collection is no exception.
I would recommend reading the poems in this book out loud, they feel nice coming off of your tongue. 4 stars because I’ll be revisiting these poems a lot.
Even though I’m not the best at deciphering poetry, I always go by the very basic senses of what the poem made me feel. I love the “slice of life” type of poems that McGavin writes. These very average things that everyone encounters on a day to day basis but McGavin can make them beautiful.
By far my favorite section was the Dream Diary with the numbered poems. As with most poems and collections of poetry, it seems the reader can enjoy the works a lot more if they know some basic information about the poet themselves and this collection is no exception.
I would recommend reading the poems in this book out loud, they feel nice coming off of your tongue. 4 stars because I’ll be revisiting these poems a lot.
January 12, 2023
I wanted to like this collection of poems more than I did. The writer is around my age but I just could not relate. There were a few good ones here and there, but overall did not love
September 28, 2024
i spilled water all over this 2 days ago and it just never dried
July 19, 2021
a sheer delight all around
July 2, 2021
The first word that comes to mind is "delectable." Each poem in this collection is pristine, lavished with stunning imagery: a grasshopper living inside of a lily, a street where the persimmon trees glow like lanterns, a lover's hair slanting into a cursive postcard note on the shower wall. There's even an index at the end for all the mentions of various foods and flowers. I underlined something on at least every page, with stars and clusters of exclamation points above especially poignant lines.
I've followed Rhiannon McGavin and her work since 2013. I've admired her and her ability to be so unabashedly eloquent from the get-go (and we're about two months apart in age, so I've always felt very seen by what she writes and says about growing up in the time we did). Over the last year, she's spoken often about how hard she worked on this collection, and it shows. Grocery List Poems is truly remarkable. I loved it—I can't even stress how much I loved it.
I've followed Rhiannon McGavin and her work since 2013. I've admired her and her ability to be so unabashedly eloquent from the get-go (and we're about two months apart in age, so I've always felt very seen by what she writes and says about growing up in the time we did). Over the last year, she's spoken often about how hard she worked on this collection, and it shows. Grocery List Poems is truly remarkable. I loved it—I can't even stress how much I loved it.
July 8, 2021
Lush, beautiful imagery. Wonderful collection of poems.
June 17, 2025
i was first introduced to rhiannon mcgavin by an 8th grade teacher. i love him - he is the nicest. mr kronenberg, if you're out there reading this, thank you so infinitesimally much for everything.
rhiannon immediately enthralled me. about a year and a half later, i am perhaps even more obsessed with her work. there is a certain strength to her words, whether quiet or bold, that captures the reader and pulls them in; her metaphors are exquisite.
i received grocery list poems for my 15th birthday, having coveted it for at least a year. i will be turning 15 tomorrow and this is by far the best gift i could've (preemptively) gotten.
i've consumed rhiannon's poems before, in their own singular states, but this is the first collection i've read from her, and it did not disappoint. something about reading this book made me feel so greedy, as if i'd stumbled upon a garden of peaches and was now gobbling the fruit too lustily. something begged and impelled me to stay.
this is all saying a lot without saying very much, and for that i apologize. to rhiannon: thank you for being my favorite poet.
and with that, i jaunt off to stop procrastinating my day. farewell!
rhiannon immediately enthralled me. about a year and a half later, i am perhaps even more obsessed with her work. there is a certain strength to her words, whether quiet or bold, that captures the reader and pulls them in; her metaphors are exquisite.
i received grocery list poems for my 15th birthday, having coveted it for at least a year. i will be turning 15 tomorrow and this is by far the best gift i could've (preemptively) gotten.
i've consumed rhiannon's poems before, in their own singular states, but this is the first collection i've read from her, and it did not disappoint. something about reading this book made me feel so greedy, as if i'd stumbled upon a garden of peaches and was now gobbling the fruit too lustily. something begged and impelled me to stay.
this is all saying a lot without saying very much, and for that i apologize. to rhiannon: thank you for being my favorite poet.
and with that, i jaunt off to stop procrastinating my day. farewell!
April 26, 2022
You all, Rhiannon McGavin is the real deal. I got to see and hear her do a reading, recently, and she’s funny, passionate, insightful, and radical, just like her writing.
There’s not enough I can say about this book. I met Rhiannon in a coffee shop/bookstore, and she told me that her book was on sale there. I thought it would be a trite read lacking much vision or originality. Poets are a dime a dozen, anyway, but holy smokes, I could not have been more wrong.
I’m still swimming in this book, still absorbing it, and I’m floored by its beginning, “You want to be naked in the water/but if you did what you wanted, you’d cry half the time.” And it’s end, “Now and then I must do things I know/I’m lousy at, such as oil paints/or believing in Gd.”
She’s off to Dublin to study, but I hope she will return to grace us with her brilliance. She’s a reminder that for us, it’s easy to fall in love with words and those who weave them together with such beauty.
There’s not enough I can say about this book. I met Rhiannon in a coffee shop/bookstore, and she told me that her book was on sale there. I thought it would be a trite read lacking much vision or originality. Poets are a dime a dozen, anyway, but holy smokes, I could not have been more wrong.
I’m still swimming in this book, still absorbing it, and I’m floored by its beginning, “You want to be naked in the water/but if you did what you wanted, you’d cry half the time.” And it’s end, “Now and then I must do things I know/I’m lousy at, such as oil paints/or believing in Gd.”
She’s off to Dublin to study, but I hope she will return to grace us with her brilliance. She’s a reminder that for us, it’s easy to fall in love with words and those who weave them together with such beauty.
October 30, 2023
I will always wish I had a better understanding of poetry. Its a language, a skill, that has eluded me. Though inept, I'm able to enjoy poems that just have "it".
In Grocery List Poems, "it" is heart. Lush imagery. Inspiration to write myself. Understanding of heartbreak and hurt. Of what it feels like to walk down a city street with friends on a Tuesday evening, of what the same street on a Tuesday evening feels like alone. "It" makes me want to eat a fruit in the park, makes me want to confront my past, and to throw the same past down a well.
I have been following McGavin's work since I discovered her in 2012 or so. She is so highly skilled, even the most poetry-illiterate will bask in her eloquence.
Also I def bookmarked some pages for crying purposes
In Grocery List Poems, "it" is heart. Lush imagery. Inspiration to write myself. Understanding of heartbreak and hurt. Of what it feels like to walk down a city street with friends on a Tuesday evening, of what the same street on a Tuesday evening feels like alone. "It" makes me want to eat a fruit in the park, makes me want to confront my past, and to throw the same past down a well.
I have been following McGavin's work since I discovered her in 2012 or so. She is so highly skilled, even the most poetry-illiterate will bask in her eloquence.
Also I def bookmarked some pages for crying purposes
March 8, 2023
2.5/5
I really wanted to enjoy this, and at certain points I did, but this was so hard to get through. I'm not sure if it's because I read the ebook or what, but the formatting of these poems were close to unreadable at times. I should probably mention that I'm dyslexic, so that most definitely had a role in this, regardless, I still feel like commas could have been utilized more.
That being said, I did get some wonderful quotes from this book and tried my best to appreciate it for the art that I am sure it is for others! Maybe I'll get a physical copy and see if that was my problem, but for now, my opinion stands strong.
I really wanted to enjoy this, and at certain points I did, but this was so hard to get through. I'm not sure if it's because I read the ebook or what, but the formatting of these poems were close to unreadable at times. I should probably mention that I'm dyslexic, so that most definitely had a role in this, regardless, I still feel like commas could have been utilized more.
That being said, I did get some wonderful quotes from this book and tried my best to appreciate it for the art that I am sure it is for others! Maybe I'll get a physical copy and see if that was my problem, but for now, my opinion stands strong.
December 3, 2022
I feel like someone who just discovered a new cuisine and does not have quite the palette yet to be able to enjoy or understand what’s in front of me.
There’s layers of meaning behind each phrase, each word even and while I get lost in this jumbled mess of a poetical jungle, I feel in time I might open up myself more to be able to traverse this kind of prose.
In the mean time, I have rated it 3 stars.
There’s layers of meaning behind each phrase, each word even and while I get lost in this jumbled mess of a poetical jungle, I feel in time I might open up myself more to be able to traverse this kind of prose.
In the mean time, I have rated it 3 stars.
October 12, 2021
Every poem was a favorite. I underlined so much in this one and was begging for more when it was finished. Rhiannon always does it - writes so well about the human experience, and this collection exuded that from every direction. I could taste so much of the poems, that’s how talented she is. Waiting (im)patiently for the next but will be reading this one over and over again.
December 23, 2022
until he's holding a pearl of lettuce, which is a poem not because it can be explained, but because it was torn by hand, with care, and lifted soft to her teeth.
in all of a kitchen's quiet intimacies, spilled yearn, damp lonelies. reminded of what words can be at my most restless,, new favorites in rhiannon's voice, salient and unwinding.
in all of a kitchen's quiet intimacies, spilled yearn, damp lonelies. reminded of what words can be at my most restless,, new favorites in rhiannon's voice, salient and unwinding.
March 2, 2023
I love Rhiannon McGavin!! I read her first collection Branches when it first came out and it was good and you can see the progression in her writing in Grocery List Poems . She really captures how boring and scary and exciting everyday life is.
"3pm on a Tuesday and I'll bite the calendar if it looks at me like that again".
"3pm on a Tuesday and I'll bite the calendar if it looks at me like that again".
October 26, 2021
Literally I’m normally not a big poetry person but this collection had me enthralled. I’ve been following Rhiannon McGavin on YouTube since I was in high school and she blows me away with how talented she is every time.
+ The entire Dream Diary section changed me as a person.
+ The entire Dream Diary section changed me as a person.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews