“My love is not some

garment

To hang on the coatrack

Until you are cold enough

To wear it.”

Threadbare

Sophia Elaine Hanson, “hummingbird”

This is a minimal set of poetry. Not completely minimal in size (although quite small, 71 pages with illustrations) but minimal in variance. It is easy to breeze through. There are some pieces that stopped me and I linger on certain words, but overall I found it does not have a mature enough tone to cause the reader to pause, reflect, or create dialogue.

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I felt old reading this. Ah, it hurts. This collection of poetry is Hanson sharing the experience of her first love, the build up and the heartbreak. At time it took me back to that place in my life, but I realize now how distant I am from those memories. Hanson shares her heart on these pages and I feel that many teenage girls could relate and learn from her journey.

♡

I overall found that Hanson keeps to being scarcely simplistic. I think that is the style so is going for, so it’s not a terrible thing. The imagery provided in also condensed though.  There was one stand out poem to me, the piece about the hummingbird.

 

 

“You call me a hummingbird,

A heart too big for my

little ribs.”

-Hummingbird heart

What a sweet, gentle, heartfelt line.

I would recommend this collection to young teenage girls, but I do not believe it is intended for anyone 18 years of age or older. I personally found her writing difficult to relate to, but even with that being said, I feel that I did not relate because her writing was too simplistic, not because of the content. I feel that her writing is not so different from other popular young women writers of her age, nothing at this point truly makes her a “stand-out poet”.

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There were some rare moments of insight in her writings that felt mature and developed,  I will give her that credit. Another piece I liked in particular,

 

 

 

“I am reclaiming

The restaurants,

The bars, the parks, the

strorefronts crosshatched

With your fingerprints.

I fold memories into

Cranes, tuck them away.”

 – Making room

One of the ways I base my opinion on poetry is how deeply it calls me to reflect and how quickly I breeze through it. I read the entirety of Hanson’s 71 page poetry book with illustrations in about twenty minutes. It’s immaturity overall did not demand reflection or intimacy from me, with the exception of the two pieces I shared with you. However, she did share her honest experiences and I respect her for that. I believe that there are many young girls out there that would feel these words more deeply than I did.

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I do believe Hanson has potential though!  I will be looking forward to reading excerpts of her next work; hopefully as she ages she will mature in her writing and use of literary techniques.

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I really enjoyed creating a chill, fresh vibes playlist for this poetry collection! Be sure to check it out! ♡

Tags: non fiction, opinion, poetry, poetry review, review, teenage, writer, young adult