She is the poem

by June Bates

She Is The Poem is a love letter to women and a celebration of sapphic joy. This collection tackles topics like love, finding yourself, coming out, self-care, and femininity.

Genres: Poetry, Lesbian, Queer, LGBT, Romance, Love, Gay

113 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2022

Reviews

[Oriana · Rating 2 out of 5]

i had such high expectations, they didn’t let me fully enjoy this.

there were some beautiful pieces here and there, but overall i thought this book was repetitive and some parts felt kind of like millennial activism.

i will be on the lookout for new books from the author, they do use words beautifully in their writing & i would love to give them another chance :)

may we move forward together.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

cute but not revolutionary

fav parts:

“I don’t love women
the way men love women.
I don’t want to tame them.
I don’t want to own them.
I don’t want to treat them
like a trophy in a case.

I just want to be close to them.

It’s still hunger,
but a different kind of hunger.”

and

“you can move on without forgiving them.”

[Any Castle · Rating 4 out of 5]

rupi kaur vibes, but queer. comfort words, perfect light read for pride month.

[Maddie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rupi Kaur but make it sapphic :(

Just didn’t do it for me, but I appreciate that this collection exists 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

(3.25 stars)

[Amy Marsden · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm such a lesbian.

[L · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lo marco ahora porque me acabo de acordar de que lo leí para regalárselo en el cumple a mi novia y llenarlo de posits, dibujitos y anotaciones y por eso no lo había guardado juju

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
Es un libro súper bonito que habla del amor entre mujeres y la identidad que me gustó un montón. En general, amo el amoooor💗

[Abigail (abigailsbookself) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm really just going to have to give up on contemporary poetry. I was fooled by the 'milk and honey' shit once, and I appear to be fooled again. I mean, is "your heart is so fucking brave" a poem??? I'll leave that to the scholars to debate, but it's a no from me.

I think the beauty of poetry is in the showing, not the telling. I like to read a poem about a specific personal experience of someone else and see my own humanity and heart reflected in that, despite not having that specific experience myself. Poetry is powerful in taking the individual and recognizing the other, and just spouting random cliches isn't that. I mean, I guess if this helps a young queer girl to feel seen and understood, awesome, make more of them (books and queers), but for anyone who is operating on human brain iOS 22 or older, it just might not work.

I'm not a huge fan of this tumblr quote style poetry, where they just write a sentence that a fourteen year old would have written on their blog in 2012, and call it a poem. Gays, please just go read Mary Oliver and Audre Lorde and bell hooks. I BEG.

I didn't realize the Taylor Swift conspiracies until after I'd read it, but like, y'all -- of course it has Taylor energy, she literally says she loves Taylor Swift in the author bio at the back of the book... media literacy and critical thinking is in peril. First of all, rude to assume that Taylor, who wrote folklore and evermore, would write something this trite and cliche, and also rude to assume she would shout out herself in the acknowledgements... Y'all please go get real hobbies, for your own sakes.

[Jessi ❤️ H. Vojsk [if villain, why hot?] · Rating 5 out of 5]

I reserve the right
to react with violence
to my boundaries being crossed.

Even though it’s not polite.
Even though it’s not kind.

I come first.

- lessons I learned from my cat #2

[Kyla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I sobbed my eyes out.

thank you so much karina for giving me this book, and thank you for the annotations. Nobody knows the shit I’ve had to deal with more than you. I love you so much.

[Cheyenne · Rating 2 out of 5]

format: paperback, 113 pages
rating: 2 stars

another poetry collection with half assed one sentence poems with line breaks taking up entire pages. this one is marginally better than the last one i read, a little bit wittier, cleverer although still massively underdeveloped.

imagine if a painter only ever drew rough sketches of paintings but never actually completed one. this is what all of these collections smell like: wasted potential, a hundred undercooked ideas of which a few should have been selected and crafted into something worthy of being called poem. especially sad because i feel like "sapphic poetry" can be so fucking cool if done well

here's one poem i actually kinda liked tho (p. 48):

I don't love women
the way men love women.
I don't want to tame them.
I don't want to own them.
I don't want to treat them
like a trophy in a case.

I just want to be close to them.

It's still hunger,
but a different kind of hunger.

-I almost didn't recognize it at first.

[Ashli Hughes · Rating 3 out of 5]

“there were entire years I mistook tolerance for love”

Ive been wanting to dive deeper into LGBTQ poetry and I think this was a great introduction. it had some beautiful pieces that reflected on some very important life lessons I think all queer individuals need to hear about: acceptance, labels, explorations, family relations and so much more. there were definitely a lot of hard hitters that made me feel as though maybe, just maybe, growth is possible and love can exist without fear.

It wasn’t revolutionary, there aren’t poems in here I’ll be thinking about for years to come or quoting to others- but for right here right now, it was sweet and gave me some reminders I needed

[kal ★ · Rating 5 out of 5]

“oh wow” - my gf

[Alex Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were some big mic drops in here, some poems that had my jaw on the floor. And others that were sweet and gentle and warm. This is a book about identity and coming out and love and it felt like a love letter written for you personally.

[Emani · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is no other way to describe this collection than beautiful, relatable, and incredibly honest. In a short period of time Bates managed to capture the pain, beauty, and magnificence that comes with being queer in today's society. There were so many poems that I totally related to and ones I know I will come back to in the future.

This was the perfect way to kick off pride month. Thank you to June Bates for being brave enough to put these feelings to paper for the world to see.

[Jessica Lowes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Literally bought this because I saw the rumour that this was Taylor Swift under a pen name. I mean, it definitely isn't... it was OK but this didn't really make me feel much which seems like a barometer for poetry? IDK maybe I am a giant, huge, fat snob. It was alright. A quick read and there were like one or two lines that I was like oh right, okay, it's getting going now... but then the next one would read flat.

[tehetheatehe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorite part: ”Don’t invalidate you own feelings. Allow them space to unfold. Seek to understand them.”

[Karina Ziba · Rating 5 out of 5]

i got this book to annotate for kyla, and it made me sob. will for sure read all the collections

[Ria Simmons · Rating 5 out of 5]

sapphic poetry? yes please

[Katalyna Hogge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing book full of queer poems! A lot of them definitely hit home and I might have shed a tear or two lol. Overall very well written!

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

3⭐️
Mega cute ale strasznie krótkie, szkoda że autorka nie wydała trochę dłuższej wersji bo ten tomik poezji można przeczytać w kilka minut. Poruszono w nim dużo tematów, o silnej miłości, o akceptacji siebie, swoich wyborów i postępowania w życiu, ale też jak i problemów rodzinnych/ wpływie rodziny na psychikę. Very sweet and short. Tak jak mówiłam jedna z szybszych i bardziej lekkich lektur, ale non the less I loved it.

[Jac Schillig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very quick read. Each page is a new poem. Very cutesy very much self love, hard to relate at some points because I don’t hold a queer background- but interesting to learn about what the LGBTQIA community endures.
But some poems did resonate w me post-read.
Fun fact: this was recommended to me by a man.

[Rainbowyikes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay I’m not mad about her. Is she tumblr queer poetry that is uber social work-y? Yes. Does she make me feel like I should definitely be able to publish my own book of poetry? Yes.

Overall, I appreciate the vibes and the pink aura of the lesbian I want to be.

[Elizabeth Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was pretty mild, but nothing to end up but considering it was the first novel of this author I think it was pretty decent. There’s another novel that just came out, so I’ll have to read that one so I can get a better judge of character.

[3r1nette · Rating 5 out of 5]

ce recueil était juste incroyable 🤎 pleins de poèmes où je me suis retrouvée dedans, où les mots ont resonnés en moi, trouvant une place dans mon cœur. certains m’ont mis les larmes aux yeux, tellement je les ai trouvé magnifiques et justes. j’ai appris que june bates en avait sorti un autre, et je vais me ruer dessus 🤎

[Sarah Frey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful little grapes that are comforting to pluck and savour their sweetness.

[Sunshine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Closer to a 3.5 star rating. I really enjoyed it and flagged quite a few pages. Will be reading the second book by June Bates soon.

[Lex Baumann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Again, like the first book, I only bought it because of the Taylor Swift rumors. The writing was lovely, although at times it felt repetitive. As someone who is not a part of the LGBTQ+ community (but is an ally), I think it would be a great book to read for people within the LGBTQ+ community.

[reegan acito · Rating 4 out of 5]

adorable i love poetry

[lauren]

***Poetry - No Star Rating***

[Ana · Rating 5 out of 5]

ADORO 💜