The poems didn’t speak to me, they’re not memorable. At first, they didn’t feel like poems, they simply felt like prose in verse, if that makes sense – as if they were written in text and then broken to match the poetry style. This simply wasn’t the book for me.

How to Maintain Eye Contact by Robert Wood Lynn is fresh and deftly thought-provoking and tinged with both humour and sadness.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of "How to Maintain Eye Contact" in exchange for an honest review. This collection makes the mundane memorable and exposes the day-to-day effects of different types of grief. My favorites were the poems that make an ordinary, and perhaps unremarkable, snapshot of a day and turns it into something notable. One of the perks of a smaller collection is being able to read them multiple times. Ultimately, I would recommend this.

Some better than others but overall this was a nice collection of poems.

Lots of mentions of cats :)

Thanks to button poetry and netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review

Thank you NetGalley and Button Poetry for the chance to read and review How to Maintain Eye Contact by Robert Wood Lynn.


'AFTER ALL THE UNPLEASANTNESS, ARMS HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY FOR THEMSELVES' was easily my favourite poem in the book and one I'll keep reading again and again. I was also a fan of these two:
I KEEP HAVING THIS FALSE MEMORY
INSCRIPTION FOR THE SURFACE OF THE MOON


As a whole, the others weren't outstanding, but these three made the book worth it for me. I'll be keeping an eye out on this poet and reading more of their work in the future.

Robert writes with such a meditative beauty. I loved the mix of humor with reference to relevant events. Would definitely read more of his work.