Summer Poetry Reads 2018- Please Don't Go Before I Get Better:

Please don't go before I get better- Madisen Kuhn 

"how lovely it is 

to fall asleep 

knowing that you lived today." - a soft summer afternoon

This poetry collection could have been one that I would have enjoyed reading when I was nineteen or maybe even during my high school years ( I said nineteen because the poet refers to that age a lot in her poems). After reading half of the book, I figured that she was an Instagram poet. The poetry read a lot like those posts that I would see friends share on social media. She wasn't as cliche as Lang Leav but I think she has potential to become a better writer.

If anything, this book reminded me of me when I was in college, when I decided to become serious about my writing. I can go back to my poems (though I'd rather not because I will cringe), and find my style to be very similar to Kuhn's. I did think this was a book that people who are non-English majors (unlike me) would enjoy, definitely teens, and maybe even someone who is trying to get over their first love.

She does have some good stuff but I found the poetry to be very amateur. She often writes about being young and living but at the same time, talks about it very vaguely. She makes specific references to things such as 7/11 and other objects that make you think of a fun weekend when you were in your teens/ early twenties. It is also clear that the book was written for the healing of the poet's self and to make herself feel better.

These are some of the verses/prose that I particularly found myself intrigued by, or even felt like I was able to relate in some way.

(i guess in some way we're always romanticizing something. 
in my attempt to explain that the romanticizing that happens 
in the beginning stages of relationships pales in comparison to 
the vulnerability, authenticity, and selflessness of deeper human 
connection, i romanticized very normal scenarios and may have 
painted them to be more significant than they probably were.) 
- beginnings always seem better through rose-tinted sunnies 

tonight, i'm thinking about the beauty of embracing life's chaos with 
knowing that we can't choose a lot of things, but we can choose to 
be good people, we can choose to love without ulterior motives, and 
to be stronger than our emotions make us feel, and to always keep 
spinning forward. it's all okay, it will always be. 
- she would want you to

I do think there are some verses in this book that are gems, they are the ones I have shared above. I do plan to write a short review for "A machine wrote this song," the book pictured next to it. Feel free to let me know your thoughts on this book!