To Drown as a Cure for Thirst: Poems

by Blake Auden

The fifth collection from poet Blake Auden, To Drown as a Cure for Thirst, is a delicate exploration of grief and how it affects—and is affected by—time and memory. 

Written in the wake of a global pandemic, the book touches on themes including loss, healing, personal reflection, mental health, and love, even in the face of the things that haunt us. Auden's most personal and deeply honest collection to date, these pages examine the idea that we can overcome what winter has taken, and that to hurt is simply an act of remembering.

Genres: Poetry

112 pages, Paperback

Published October 4, 2022

Reviews

[❀jadou❀ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved this poetry book, I realize I haven't read many poetry books by male authors, but I'm most definitely going to check on his work to read his other books.
These poems really got to me but mainly a few; "I'm afraid to die", "I don't know how to change", "Today", "Ars Poetica", "Still alone" and "4:07 a.m." are 100% my favorites. They really made me question stuff and I need a little time to think now... I've really loved reading these poems and am looking forward to reading more of Blake Auden's works.
Also, the cover's so cute!

[Soula Kosti · Rating 3 out of 5]

"think i am a ruin,
which is to say that I never
meant to be beautiful,
only to endure"

I was previously given Murmuration by Blake Auden as an ARC from NetGalley and absolutely loved it, so I'll probably read anything that Blake puts out there! :)

Blake Auden's recent poetry collection To Drown as a Cure for Thirst has a great cover and even greater title but can't say that it was my favorite from his poetry collections. Some of the poems felt a bit too similar to others or that something was missing.

Here was a list of my favorites:

- Another Small Weight
- You, Like All of Us
- Paper Town
- Dolorosa
- To Shed a Limb
- Ruin

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

[Lauren pavey · Rating 4 out of 5]

To drown as a cure for thirst by Blake Auden

I’m not sure if it’s possible but I want to thank the entire booksta universe for this. When I started my bookstagram page I had just rediscovered my love of reading.
Reading had been something that I knew I enjoyed but I never made time for, suddenly I started prioritising my reading time and having time off in this world that praises 24/7 work mode.
Because of the booksta world I not only discovered my general love of reading again but my curious nature was reawoken and before I knew it I was reading work from new authors, exploring new genres and exploring the different ways writers and artists show those new ideas.
Through this I have rediscovered my love of poetry and I am so glad to have read this book as part of my initial reintruction of poetry.

Some of these poems are heartbreaking, some are full of joy and hope. Loss and love , happiness and despair, these poems convey a thousand and one emotions sometimes in as little as 4 lines.

These poems are beautifully mesmerising and I truly enjoyed working my way through this collection.
These poems will stay with me for years to come

Thank you to netgalley, central avenue publishing and of course Blake Auden for this arc in exchange for an honest review

This book is truly breathtaking!

[Lozzi Counsell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first collection I’ve read by this poet, but I was very intrigued by the subject of the collection. It explores “grief and how it affects—and is affected by—time and memory.” A relatable subject for many, including me.

I found the poems powerful and easy to understand. There wasn’t much that really needed picking apart. I tend to prefer poetry like that. I definitely felt the themes were captured well. For me, these poems showed a lot of… I understand you’re comfortable in your grief, but here is some hope and gentle nudging to push on to go with that comfort.

My personal favourite poems were “I’m Afraid to Die”, “To Shed a Limb” and “You, Like All of Us”. There are so many snippets from the poems that have stuck with me, including “do you remember the last time you held something other than fear between the edges of your fingers?”

I would love to read more by this poet.

Thank you to NetGalley, Central Avenue Publishing and Blake Auden for this DRC in exchange for an honest review.

[Kid Ferrous · Rating 5 out of 5]

Following Blake Auden’s gut-wrenching poetry collection “Murmuration”, comes “To Drown As A Cure For Thirst”, proving that he has lost none of his ability to take his readers on a visceral emotional journey.
The poetry is accessible to all poetry readers, and appears simple on the surface, but it is stealthy in the way it can drill down to the heart of your emotions and tear you apart. The collection deals with themes of suicide and self-harm so trigger warnings there.
“To Drown As A Cure For Thirst” consolidates Blake Auden’s reputation as a poet of considerable power and is highly recommended. Read it and weep.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

ARC provided by @NetGalley and Central Avenue Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

To Drown as a Cure for Thirst is a beautiful collection of short poems about love and loss. I may be wrong but it seemed influenced by Vuong’s poetry and the almost tangible physicality of his writing. Auden’s style is much lighter and has its own rhythm. It’s a bit too direct and on the surface for my liking but still full of powerful language to enjoy.

[Gabriel Noel · Rating 4 out of 5]

ARC given by NetGalley for Honest Review

Short form prose and poetry that actually invokes feeling and wonder is something I've been missing lately and To Drown as a Cure for Thirst gives me exactly that. Auden captures the themes of grief, change, and love so easily in so few words.

I would compare the style and themes to poets like Mary Oliver, Robert Frost, and Nayyirah Waheed.

My favorite poems are: "Tell Me Something Good", "Another Small Weight", "Ruin", and "Under."

[Andy N · Rating 4 out of 5]

** To be featured on Reading in Bed Episode 58B **

Blurb: The fifth collection from poet Blake Auden, To Drown as a Cure for Thirst, is a delicate exploration of grief and how it affects—and is affected by—time and memory. 

Written in the wake of a global pandemic, the book touches on themes including loss, healing, personal reflection, mental health, and love, even in the face of the things that haunt us. Auden's most personal and deeply honest collection to date, these pages examine the idea that we can overcome what winter has taken, and that to hurt is simply an act of remembering.

Strengths and Weaknesses:

Reviewing Poetry books I frequently find a very different beast to reviewing novels like I do more than anything else really with Reading in Bed and poetry books themselves I have found certainly since the birth of Instagram with writers like “Rupi Kaur” and a number of other similar poets and this is certainly reflected in this book.

Wrote over the global panemic, my wife Amanda and myself brought out our joint short poetry book ‘The Lockdown was all we could see’ and reading this book made me think of very similar emotions we both went through when reading this book which is a book where the writer went through a massive case of reflection.

The starting piece is a great way of starting off this book with a element of looking backwards with ‘Tell me something good’ for example a incredibally stark reflection back before lockdown stating at the end of the piece “tell me the light / is simply our shadow, leaving / that the glinting steel is not a blade’ bringing a lot of memories back of when I was barely able to leave my home for the better part off 6 months.

A Loop which follows with a harrowing line ‘suppose tomorrow is just yesterday / moving’ before then replacing memories with nothing but darkness – making me think of a state of mind whether things were bright or not weather wise – everything was in a completely different state off mind.

Of course with the book being that weighty even though the poems are very sparse, it is not a book you can skip through, I suspect it’s a book that could take some readers months and months to get through because of the sheer weight of the words and considering the world is now hopefully over Covid, it does ask the question why wasn’t this book bought out before to be honest and whether people will want to return to emotions like what the writer was going through here like we all were.

It’s a great book however and I like the fact that the emotion is showed throughout rather than smacked you in the face.

8/10

[Cwellere · Rating 4 out of 5]

what is grief if not the persistence of want, the determination of love to stay?

This was my first Blake Auden poetry collection and I was deeply moved by the overlaying themes of loss, grief, anxiety and the desire to hold on to love. “To hurt is simply an act of remembering” was the line which hooked me and made me want to pick up this book, but there are many more lines that have really stuck with me. Reading poetry is a very personal and mood-dependent experience, and the number of highlighted passages, of these little nuggets that find an echo inside me is what makes me decide if it was the right pick for me. This book definitely was.
Of course, I did not connect with every single poem, and some of them left me colder than the rest, especially when I could not relate because I have different experiences. Some motifs and expressions also feel a bit overused when you read the collection in one sitting as I did. But this was an excellent introduction to the author’s work and I’m definitely going to dive into his other books.

TW: I would add that self-harm is often addressed, so if this is triggering for you, you might want to take self-care breaks while reading this book.

Thank you to Central Avenue Publishing and NetGalley for this e-ARC.

[Ainun Zahra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you so much Netgalley and the Publisher for review copy in exchange of honest opinion..

What a gorgeous book! The unique name and beautiful cover caught my eye and I requested it out of instinct more than anything. It's divided into 4 parts. Though Poetry isn't exactly my kind of thing, I discovered I could understand most of them. It's sad but soothing, with some of the most impressive lines I've read this year. I'm sharing my most favourite poems below :

1. Another Smal Weight.
2. Under.
3. I Don't Know How To Change.
4. Thirty - Seven.
5. I Know Not What It Is To Forget.
6. It Shouldn't Feel Like Winter.
7. It Is Always The Past That Holds Us.
8. Nothing New.
9. Dolorosa.
10. To The Sea.

Favourite quotes :

1. I have known
the hollow
Of yearning.

Of becoming a word
Stripped of meaning
and pressed to the ground
at your feet.

2. And what is grief
if not the persistence
of want,

The determination
of love
to stay.

3. What is poetry
If not
the translation
Of silence?

4. To remember is to relieve,
and to live is to endure.

5. but self-preservation
is a single
apartment,
and anxiety has built
an entire city
beneath
my tongue.

[J Earl · Rating 3 out of 5]

To Drown as a Cure for Thirst by Blake Auden is a collection of poems that uses common feelings as a way to connect with the reader.

I am in the middle on this collection and being unfamiliar with his other work I can't compare it to what he has previously done. I found that while he touches on topics most of us have experienced, from love to grief, I wasn't moved by how he expressed his ideas. It isn't that it was bad poetry, some of it is good, but it just didn't stand out for me. Usually I can find a poem or two that really got to me. Not this time. A few made me think about moments in my past, which is a good thing for poetry to do, but it didn't offer me new insight or appreciation, just a reminder.

I didn't bother looking up anything he may have online, I just didn't care enough, but he apparently has a big social media presence, so I would suggest looking him up and seeing if anything connects with you. If so, then this may well be a good collection for you. Also, if you simply like to find poets you don't yet know, this is not a bad collection and may well speak more to you than it did to me.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[Rhick Deuel Esteves · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't expect this book to surpass my expectations. The lack of excitement I felt when I began this poetry collection stems from the disappointment I felt after finishing a recent poetry collection written by someone with a large online following on social media. Blake Auden has the same status, and I was terrified of being let down again by a poet whose work had been popularized by Instagram and Tiktok.

Surprisingly, even though some poems fail to impress me, reading Auden's book is still cathartic. Holding onto his pain drove him to describe his experiences and suffering in a variety of creative ways, which I found fascinating. There are many beautifully written lines, as well as several poems that I found captivating.

Auden has potential, but it will only be realized if he abandons his proclivity to cater to his Instagram followers. I'm looking forward to that day, and he should be as well.

Thanks to NetGalley and Central Avenue Publishing for the digital ARC in exchange for this honest review.

[Ariana · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5-4 stars
Right off the bat I loved the dedication in this book, "I think this one is for me"; I thought that was absolutely beautiful, and I loved that you could see that theme very clearly throughout the book. There were some pieces I really loved and others I could've done without, but I do have 21 highlights (I read this on kindle).

This explores grief, loss, depression, anxiety and a lot of other very heavy topics so I don't feel comfortable getting into the specifics of what I enjoyed as they are very personal. However, I will say that if you deal with urges of self harm and suicidal ideation be cautious going into this book as it does explore the relief/comfort that it can bring at times which I fear could be dangerous if you are not in the right mindset.

TW/CW:
Self harm, depression, suicidal ideation, loss, grief, mental health/illness, panic attacks/panic disorders/anxiety, death
(these are just the ones I caught please do not take it as an end all be all)

Thank you Netgalley and Central Avenue Publishing for this ARC in exchange for an honest review

[Elina · Rating 3 out of 5]

To Drown As A Cure for Thirst is a poetry collection by Blake Auden about mental health, grief, and heartbreak.

The poet managed to collect some beautiful thoughts and let his feelings flow onto the pages. I personally could relate to quite a few of the poems and some of the thoughts really hit me.

However, this poetry collection felt like a first draft. The author has potential. I wish he'd be a bit bolder and would play more with words and structure. That way, I think, he could make his poetry stick to the reader's brains and stand out more.

All in all, I thought this was a beautiful collection and definitely worth the read.

I recommend this book to people that feel called by the title. And to those who may be feeling alone in their grief, heartbreak, or are struggling with their mental health. These poems will provide you with comfort

I rated it 3/5 stars

[Amy Littleford · Rating 3 out of 5]

*3.5 stars. Firstly, I'd like to thank Netgalley and Central Avenue Publishing for the eARC for an honest review.

"the grave is another home that doesn't want you".

The is my first time reading Blake Auden's poetry. The title drew me in straight away. This collection is split into four parts and explore grief and loss throughout. I liked that all the poems had titles and Auden's use of imagery is very affective throughout. The poetry reads a stream of consciousness that explores themes like heartbreak, loss and mental health.

"Look ahead and the past can't hurt us. Look behind and the future won't find us".

It was a quick easy read and I enjoyed exploring Auden's writing style. This is a good poetry collection and I'd be open to reading more from this author.

"is it only trauma if you visit it?"

Amy x

[S · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is something so soft and comforting about these poems. It’s nice to read poetry that is soft and poignant but not visceral or cutting. The poems are both heartbreaking and beautifully written without being flowery or long. I would have adored this poetry collection when I was younger; I know I would’ve carried the book with me wherever I went. They definitely speak to youthful earnestness and youthful heartbreak. They weren’t childish—just simply written that a younger audience would appreciate. Overall, a solid poetry collection that was poignant and raw. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is something so soft and comforting about these poems. It’s nice to read poetry that is soft and poignant but not visceral or cutting. The poems are both heartbreaking and beautifully written without being flowery or long. I would have adored this poetry collection when I was younger; I know I would’ve carried the book with me wherever I went. They definitely speak to youthful earnestness and youthful heartbreak. They weren’t childish—just simply written that a younger audience would appreciate. Overall, a solid poetry collection that was poignant and raw. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[livvv · Rating 4 out of 5]

The language used was quite powerful and direct but captures the themes of love, loss and grief really well. Two of my favourite poems was were 'A loop' and 'Heavy light' because I personally just really liked the imagery they created for me, but there were many others that also create this.The poems are not at all long but still bring across the emotions and themes that they want to and this is one of the biggest charms of the book - it does not need long poems to convey feelings.

I definetely recommend this book, even to those who aren't particularly into poetry but are willing to try.

Thank you to Central Avenue Publishing, the author and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC.

[Annalise Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

To Drown as a Cure for Thirst was a poetry book that I didn't know I needed until I read it. There were some quotes that honestly did not make sense to me at first, but when I got to another poem later in the book, I went back and reread the poems I didn't understand. I grasped the meaning behind the poems very easily after reading a few later poems.

I think this was a good representation of life. Sometimes you don't necessarily understand the things that lay ahead of you until you have the experience necessary to move over the obstacles. Athletes don't wake up and immediately start playing their sport. They practice and train and warm up their muscles.

[Beth Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Netgalley and Central Avenue Publishing for the ARC copy. I really enjoyed these poems. I think they will translate better in a physical copy as the formatting is sometimes impacted by the kindle version. Some of the poems really resonated with me and there are multiple sections highlighted in my copy. Personally I really enjoy short prose poetry so this book was perfect for me. The themes of loss and anxiety are powerful in the book.. I will definitely be recommending it to other readers wanting to read on these topics.

[Preston · Rating 4 out of 5]

A title and cover that instantly captures one's attention!

After Murmuration, Blake Auden does yet another brilliant job with To Drown as a Cure for Thirst. Of course, as with other poetry, I didn't connect with all of the works in this collection; I couldn't relate to some of the experiences. But this takes nothing away from the lovely writing.

Powerful, hard-hitting, and beautiful.

*Thanks to Central Avenue Publishing, the author and NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.*

[Seher · Rating 5 out of 5]

"i think the darkest parts
of anxiety
are a little like that:

it isn't there
and then it is"

Thank you NetGalley and Central Avenue Publishing for the chance to read and review To Drown as a Cure for Thirst by Blade Auden!

Long story short; I loved this book, and its going into my top reads of 2022 shelf! I'm also going to have to check out the rest of Blake Audens books! This felt like a well thought out collection, with all the pieces consistently good!

[Chelsea · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first I've read from Blake Auden and I was drawn to this book by the title and the cover.
These poems felt very personal and that really came through in each of the poems. However I struggled with the lack of structure and it felt like these poems were created to be seen on Instagram and Pinterest, which is usually not my style.

Thanks to Netgalley for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This poetry book tackles some important aspects, such as anxiety. Like with every poetry book, there were poems I really loved and poems I didn’t fully connect with.
Overall, I did like the writing style of the poems and the messages they carried, so I’m giving this poetry collection 3,5 out of 5 stars.

[Court · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn’t the biggest fan of the formatting in this book - it sometimes felt disjointed and reinforced the feeling that the pieces are lacking or missing something. A lot of the poems felt repetitive and surface-level. I didn’t really feel as though this book had a direction or theme that it was trying to follow.

Those that did stand out for me and are definately worth reading, are ‘Let Me Show You What I Know About Time’, ‘Another Small Weight’ (my personal favourite from the collection), ‘You, Like All of Us’ and ‘A Thank-You’.

Auden is definately one of the better contemporary/modern poets out there, however this collection fell short for me personally.

[mar✰ · Rating 4 out of 5]

what is poetry
if not
the translation
of silence?



thanks to netgalley and central avenue publishing for an arc of this book

[Jess Kalinowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blake Auden’s heartfelt poetry strikes a very personal chord. I deeply resonated with several poems and the nostalgically melancholic themes of his collection.

[Nicole Longstaff · Rating 4 out of 5]

ARC- ‘To drown as. A cure for thirst’ is fresh and engaging for all poetry readers. It’s punchy and blunt, in a perfect mix that makes you ache to consume this collection in one sitting.

[mike f. · Rating 5 out of 5]

such a strong collection. what a powerful read

[Venneh · Rating 3 out of 5]

About halfway through this I took a look to try to find out more about Auden, and I quickly found out he's an Instagram poet, which didn't even remotely surprise me. About a third of the way through I found myself hoping that the woman who is the subject of these poems had gotten very far away from Auden as quickly as possible. I some of his poems past poet friends of mine to make sure that maybe there wasn't a perspective I wasn't considering or was missing somehow. The verdict was no, this is just a sad white boy. Just not for me personally.