“There is still a story in my lungs”
This is my first time reading poetry. Or, at least, it’s my first time reading poetry since school.
Before I get started there’s one thing which puzzled me about this book. I’ve since realised it’s most likely my copy however, a chunk of my book is missing. Essentially, pages aren’t there and poems within one section are repeated in those missing pages.
This is obviously a mistake however, I’ve never read poetry before, so I’m seeing pages in the wrong order, titles missing and I’m thinking “Maybe it has some poetic meaning that I just don’t understand?”
No. It doesn’t.
Yes, I’m dumb.
Let’s move on, shall we?
Unfortunately I can’t offer my thoughts on the missing pages. However, what I did read I really liked. Well, what I read and understood anyway.
I think my favourites are as follows:
A Different Life; Hands; Danger; Say; Femininity; All I Can Tell You; Let the Juice Run; What I Think She Means and Motherhood.
That last one is interesting for me because I’m not a mother. I’m not sure if I’m right because ‘Poetry’ and it’s new to me, but for me this feels like she’s saying she thinks her daughters would be braver and more confident than her in certain situations and I really like that. I hope that if I have a daughter they would be braver and more confident than me when I was at school, so I liked that one.
I love ‘In a Different life’ because it makes you think of yourself and other women. All the things we could do, be and achieve if we didn’t second guess ourselves.
“Nothing haunts me like the lives I could have lead”
Is this regret? Or wondering what could have been if we believed in ourselves?
Is it weird to say that some of the poems, I can’t put into words why I like them? Just that they make me feel something, or something seems to resonate within me?
Perhaps if I understood more about poetry I could, but for now I’ll settle for the feeling.
I think, I don’t know but I think, This is the Journey is a collection of poems spanning ten years of experiences, thoughts and feelings from Alison Malee’s life.
I’m used to reading biographies to learn about someones life, but this is learning while also getting inside their head. it was a new experience for me, but fascinating all the same.
