What can I say about the poetry collection the last four years by Kelsey Day? I guess I can say some parts were good, other parts did not work for me. It is a personal collection of poems that create a story and stories that will not be for everyone. The illustrations are interesting and capture the feeling of things well. Though I am not always sure what those feelings are. I would understand every single word on the page, but have no idea what the poet was trying to say. I had no idea why those words were chosen to string together.
The book is broken into four chapters: growing backwards [poems of unwellness]; him [poems of love]; me [poems of discovery]; and growing forwards [poems of healing]. The first section I gave the most time to. I could feel the depression, sadness, even perhaps self-harm. I sent an image of a poem to a friend and she told me to stop reading now. I didn’t have the heart to ask why, as I couldn’t understand what was wrong (or right) about it. Though, I like that most of the poems are in a more traditional format, nothing too fancy to look at, but the text itself was lofty.
What was wrong and right about Lily Young-Fritchie’s illustrations is that they come off as both actually beautiful and ugly at the same time. Sometimes an image, though simple in presentation, comes off with a bold statement. Other times, it feels as if some school kid who has talent is just starting out. Now, I have trouble with stick figures, so I’m not saying I could do better, but I am saying they evoke emotional responses that are not always positive
What I don’t like about things actually makes me feel that there is something there. It is not for me, but it is for someone. There is an audience for this collection. Day is also the author of other collections of poetry and several novels as well. Sometimes a read is not because the book is good or bad, but because you are having an experience that is or could be, out of your wheelhouse, out of your comfort zone. Sometimes it is just for the experience of having read something at all. And sometimes it is so you experience something that is not your usual tastes in a genre you enjoy. This book is all of that.
I give this a three, but it is a 2.5 for me.
