Love Poems for Anxious People

by John Kenney

"In the spirit of his New York Times bestseller Love Poems for Married People and Love Poems for People with Children, as well as his wildly popular New Yorker pieces, Thurber Prize-winner John Kenney presents a hilarious new collection of poetry for anxious people"--

Genres: Poetry, Humor, Nonfiction, Mental Health, Adult, Contemporary, Memoir

109 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 21, 2020

About the author

John Kenney is the author of three novels and four books of poetry, including Love Poems for Married People. His first novel, Truth in Advertising, won the Thurber Prize for American humor. He is also the author of Talk to Me, which received a starred Kirkus review. He is a long-time contributor to The New Yorker magazine’s Shouts & Murmurs. He lives in Larchmont, NY, with his wife, Lissa, and two children.

Reviews

[Candace · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a person who is friends with anxiety, I found this collection of poems relatable and funny. I cracked a smile, which stayed on my face through many of the poems. John Kenney made anxiety seem serious, yet funny. The poetry causes the reader to take themselves a bit lighter and with a smile.

[BAM doesn’t answer to her real name · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sooo relatable! This had me laughing AND shaking me head YES. Anyone who suffers from social anxiety will love this short book.

[Lorilin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Please tell me you’ve read this series. Love Poems for Anxious People just came out last week, and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. Author John Kenney cracked me up with his first two books (Love Poems for Married People and Love Poems for People with Children), so I knew I was going to love this one. It doesn’t disappoint. From awkward first dates to nerve-wracking small talk at a party to a failed attempt at befriending the cool hipster barista, these poems are solid gold. As someone who has dealt with lifelong anxiety, I have to say it feels pretty great to read these poems and tell myself at least I’m not as awkward as this guy. 😂

[Bandit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two anxious people in love
read these poems to each other
and laughed and laughed.
The poems were relatable
and entertaining.
And there's no way to make this rhyme and I don't have to,
but then, of course, what will you think of this poem...

[TraceyL · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this. It made me feel anxious but in a way that showed how the author really does understand anxiety and how ridiculous it can get at times. Great collection. I'm continuing to read more by this author.

[The Lit Bitch · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved John Kenney’s book of poems, Love Poems for Married People. There was so much truth in those poems and I laughed several times.

His follow up book of poems, Love Poems for People with Children was also funny, but the Married People book is still my absolute favorite. I have gifted his books of poems multiple times and I am sure I will be gifting this one to friends in the future.

When I saw that this book was coming out, I knew it would be a great read. He writes with such raw realism and during this crazy uncertain time, what could possibly be better than a bit of satire about anxiety?

I have to admit, this book of poems gave Married People a run for its money as a favorite of mine. I don’t consider myself as someone who suffers from chronic anxiety but there were a number of poems in this book that I could certainly relate to. I especially liked the ones titled “In Conversation with Myself (2:49 am), 3:31 am…..etc”. I have such trouble sleeping and this little poem was one I could relate to, not to mention I laughed so hard a number of times while reading it.

There were so many real life situations that Kenney touched on that always make me uncomfortable—like tipping or making small talk. I think a number of people could relate to these different scenarios. I love how he takes such relatable issues and makes them humorous but at the same time, it’s not as though he is laughing at these issues, he is laughing with these issues and I absolutely love it!

If you are looking for a little something for a friend in your life who suffers from anxiety or simply needs a good laugh then no need to look further. John Kenney writes funny and relatable poetry for all readers and you should definitely check it out! As many of you know I am not a huge poetry person but I love reading John Kenney’s poems!

See my full review here

[Miranda · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's unfortunate that the library I work for doesn't purchase a lot of modern poetry because it is a type of writing that I enjoy immensely. Kenney beautifully made anxiety something humorous and relatable. I believe that one of the most important realizations one can get from reading this collection is that we all have a little bit of anxiety, and that's ok; everyone needs to know how to make fun of themselves just a little bit.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this collection.

[ems · Rating 3 out of 5]

this poetry collection does seem like a series of mild comedy sketches about anxiety (written with lots of whitespace)

[Beatriz Reis · Rating 5 out of 5]

How can someone make anxiety so funny and yet so painfully relatable? I’ll come back to these poems many, many times. I can already declare this book as one of the best purchases of 2022.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This had me giggling right away and then at halfway it starts to feel overdone. The last poem in the book was really sweet though.

[NayDoubleU · Rating 3 out of 5]

a quick read that i actually completely understood and felt. if you want to know what anxiety feels like this is a great start

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was this man in my head? It often felt, as I read this poems, that he was reading my experiences. Funny.

[lily ✿ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book within half an hour, so it was definitely a quick and easy read. It made me chuckle a few times. Other than that, though, I was a little disappointed: As somebody who suffers from several anxiety disorders, I was hoping that I would find a little bit more of myself within these pages. There were some scenarios that I would simply never find myself in (aka: The parties.) My anxiety flourishes around so many situations, including starting conversations at all. Most of these poems focused on the mundane, things that average people will find themselves embarrassed by (Forgetting someone you know’s name). On the plus side, it made me feel inspired to write my own poems documenting my anxiety disorder.

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I truly thought this was going to be a bit therapeutic rather than humorous. Oh well, humor can only help anxiety, right?

[JK · Rating 1 out of 5]

1
Is there a category of poetry for dad-joke style poems? If there is, this book is definitely shelved under it.

[Piper Robbins · Rating 3 out of 5]

The anxiety of knowing people will see this review and see any of my Goodreads reviews makes me not want to write a review for this book about anxiety.

[Justin Drummond · Rating 4 out of 5]

Relatable and funny. An enjoyable read, with or without anxiety.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

more love poems TO anxious people but none the less had me laughing and feeling deeply seen and sad! Emails to the editor were my favs because- duh!

[عُـلا]

to even be classified as poetry is a crime. this was a nightmare of facebook memes, dad jokes and wretched stand up comedy.

[Terra Leona]

okej knjiga
"And to my wife, Lissa, surely one of the least anxious people I have ever met. She edited every line in this book, made my bad ideas good. And suggested I see my therapist five times a week, not just one."

[Amy Broman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I laughed my way through this 53-minute audiobook of short poems for anxious people (or anyone who wants a good laugh).

[Hannah Kaufmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.4 ⭐️

Serving millennial realness with a touch of mild alcoholism. At some parts, I felt validated; at others, I amusedly chuckled. Shoutout to my amazing boyfriend for getting me this because it “reminded him of me.”

If you’re anxious, give this a read! It’ll only take like 30 minutes— don’t be fooled by the page count.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

**I received this e-arc from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks Net Galley!**

4.5 stars

As someone who has a pretty major amount of anxiety every day, I found this collection of poetry hilarious. I was laughing throughout the collection, and smiling the entire time.

It put a spin on anxiety that was funny and relatable. It took my mind off of the anxiety going on in my life right now (ya know about a global pandemic) and reminded me that it is okay to laugh at yourself every now and then.

I just wish it was longer! I would have read 100 more pages of similar poems. I think there is so much more that could have been done, I would have loved more.

[Nina · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am not all that into poetry but I read this in an attempt to explore the genre a bit. The poems are fine and almost funny, but also a bit... easy? simple? They are pretty straight-forward, nothing between the lines. Also, they don't rhyme. I like rhymes.

The last poem is a fine touch, but overall this gets 2 stars as it was ok, but I can't say that I enjoyed it enough to give it 3.

This poem felt very 2020 though:

Nice to meet you

Now what do I do?
With my hand, I mean.
The one you just shook
with your germ-infested one.
Are you a clean man?
You don't look it to me.
Sure, you are a senior client
in charge of marketing.
But where has that senior client hand been?
Not under scalding water like my hand.
And now you have ruined that.
You have been talking since we shook hands
though I do not know
for sure
what you have been saying
as I have been thinking
about my dirty hand.
I was just going to grab a sandwich.
But I can't now.
I have to go back to the bathroom.
When I said Nice to meet you
earlier
I was lying.

[Annah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did think there were some funny poems and relatable moments, especially with health anxiety, and the last poem about his brother was sweet, but as a poetry collection, this was weak.

I expected it to be love poems mainly, because of the title, and I agree with someone else’s review of how it should have been named “Love Poems To Anxious People” because it feels mis-marketed as is. It almost felt like he slapped together a random assortment of journal pages that vaguely resembled anxiety (some of which I would classify as worry). Many of the poems (not all) also read lazy, not because of word choice or lack of rhyme or other poetic devices—I firmly believe all poetry is poetry in any form—but because it felt as if there was no direction and he picked the first topics that came to mind rather than intentionally composing a collection.

[Gwendolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really related to some of these poems. They were laugh out loud funny. However, they didn't feel like poems, but rather stream of consciousness with an anxious person. Maybe it was the formatting, but I never knew whether I was reading a poem (other than the times titles were bold) or if I was reading an intro or the like.

Positives
+ able to relate
+ funny!!
+ collection centered around anxiety

Negatives
- sometimes too stream of conscious
- didn't seem like "poetry"
- very short collection

Definitely interested in picking up Kenney's other collection Love Poems for Married People.

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you have anxiety, it's almost guaranteed that you will identify with something within these pages.

This is, however, a short collection of humorous poems with characters that have anxious thoughts and not a self-help book, so keep that in mind. It doesn't go particularly deep and is best for some chuckles and a "that is completely me!" moment or two or three.

I'm not generally a huge fan of contemporary poetry because it often doesn't go very deep. This was no exception to that, but it wasn't trying to be. I can respect that.

The exception was a poem at the end for his brother. That was sweet and beautiful and even still a bit funny in the sweetest way possible.

Author, I would definitely read some of those new book ideas in "Unanswered e-mails to my editor (part 2)" -
Love Poems (for People with Exceptionally Low Self-Esteem)
Love Poems (for People Who Find a Deep Sadness in the Everyday)
Love Poems (for People Who Don't Like the Company of Other People)

I am laughing but am simultaneously serious. Do it. Write them.

3 Stars

[Treessing · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this because NetGalley was kind enough to provide an arc of it! I generally really loved every story I read, laughed a lot, and related to them way more than I thought I would as someone with anxiety ( the crippling social kind ). I thought this was really good and I wish to see more from this author and the other books he has out! I definitely recommend for anxious people who need a laugh and to feel less alone.

[Arlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was worth it just for the first poem about health and the poem about a relaxing day at the beach. I laughed out loud - it was so exactly like my husband. I had him read it as well. The rest of the poems were funny and enjoyable, but those two were the ones that most reminded me of my life.

[Miyawakiss · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very witty and relatable. ☺️ Especially if you're someone who struggles with anxiety, you will relate to at least a few of the poems in this book.

The ones I really enjoyed were: 💗
- Job interview thank you note
- Teacher's note home about the upcoming sceond grade field trip
- In conversation with myself (2:49am)
- Sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight