Title: Leaning toward Light: Poems for Gardens & the Hands That Tend Them
Author: Tess Taylor
Genre: Poetry
Rating: 2.50
Pub Date: August 29, 2023

I received a complimentary eARC from Storey Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. #Gifted #Ad

T H R E E • W O R D S

Thoughtful • Pretty • Chaotic

📖 S Y N O P S I S

Caring for plants (much like reading a good poem) brings comfort, solace, and joy to many—offering an outlet in difficult times to slow down and steward growth. In Leaning toward Light, acclaimed poet and avid gardener Tess Taylor brings together a diverse range of contemporary voices to offer poems that celebrate that joyful connection to the natural world.

💭 T H O U G H T S

As an avid reader and green thumb, I was really looking forward to dipping into this collection of poems centering around gardening and the human connection to the natural world. I would by no means consider myself to be a poetry connoisseur, so I didn't really know what to expect.

Divided into seven distinct sections, each with antidotes, illustrations, recipes, a variety of poems or musings, I was able to digest this collection in one sitting. The highlights for me were the recipes, and I preferred the paragraph portions of the writing to the actual poetry. As much as it is organized into sections, it is also disorganized in another way. Some poems didn't really seem to fit where they were. As I progressed, I found myself skimming, which is never a good sign with poetry and/or when it's a topic that interests me.

As an avid gardener and nature lover I expected to love this anthology. However, only several of the poems resonated with me, and the majority did not. Overall, this was a quick read that was highly forgettable and missed the mark for me. Maybe it would be more for the casual reader who enjoys gardening than for avid readers. The artwork is beautiful and it is definitely more of a coffee table book than anything else.

📚 R E A D • I F • Y O U • L I K E
• gardening
• contemporary poetry
• human/nature connection

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"We befriended a plot of earth, and it befriends us in return."

This book has made a lovely addition to my library’s collection. Its appealing cover catches patron’s eyes and the topic is very popular in our area.

4.75/5 stars

tess taylor. talented editor. the ways she interpreted the concepts of tending the earth and the self through the poems she compiled were pleasantly expansive. i genuinely did not expect the variety of the poets from different time periods, identities, and backgrounds included in this compilation. i expected something solely modern, but i’m so happily surprised she included some classics i enjoyed in my childhood.

the compilation was split into 7 sections:

1: planting & sprouting
2: weeding & wilding
3: growing & tending
4: being & waiting
5: grieving & release
6: harvest and feeding
7: wintering and turning again

each section had beautiful illustrations, prose, and even recipes with stories from the poets that were included as well. the storytelling recipe aspect was another unexpected detail that elevated the compilation. to understand some of the poets’ experiences that helped mold the poems they wrote felt so sacred and intimate. preserving personal/familial histories is something i find super important. so this was, of course, magic to me.

in my opinion, books that make you feel differently about the physical world you walk through are almost always some of the best and most enduring reads. this is definitely one of those books. although not every poem was my style, the combination of novel and historic content within this compilation made it almost indescribably fascinating to digest. therefore, 5 stars. definitely one for the gardeners, the green thumbs, and those with familial ties to the land around them!

i’ll leave you with two of my favorite excerpts:

what regenerates in a household - laura villareal
"You call them recuerdos when I apologize,
ways to find me in our home when I'm not around."

earth - cleopatra mathis
"You see a woman of a certain age,
not old, yet seeing every sign
of how the world will change her."

Was quite cute! Lovely illustrations and very heartfelt. I believe I would of enjoyed it more if I was a gardener but will be reccomending to all those who garden!

Here is a wonderful collection of poems for gardeners and nature lovers. The poetry is highlighted by some lovely illustrations and a even a few recipes.

This book would be a pleasure to read as a brief respite during the busy gardening season, and as a comforting reminder of greener times to come during the long, long winter.

A beautiful collection of poems that bring a grounded nature to the reader. A connection to the natural world through free verse.

This was actually a very unexpected read, I'd gone in thinking it was one thing realised it was another and I thought I'd give it a go and honestly I'm SO glad that I did!

I just feel like it brought so much insight and positivity and just overall a very lovely experience!

I wanted so badly to love this anthology. I, too, picked up tending to plants during Covid and wanted to relate to the works, and while some resonated and I loved, most did not, unfortunately. The artwork within the collection was beautiful and the recipes interspersed are certainly going to be ones I try. Overall, this one was a miss for me. Thanks to NetGalley and Storey Publishing for the advance copy to review.

A beautiful collection of classic and contemporary poetry themed around gardening. It features short recipes, a handful of brief essays, and beautiful illustrations. I would definitely pick this up in print, due to the gorgeous illustrations and for better flow when reading. Would make a lovely (holiday?) gift or addition to your home library permanent collection.

When I first started gardening, I felt like I didn’t belong. How does one not belong in your own garden? I’ll tell you how: when every thing you know of gardens is written by WASPs and old white classicists, that’s how.

Leaning toward the light is (mostly) modern poetry about gardens, gardening, and the mindfulness that comes with it. It is an anthology that strives to make the gardening community accessible to a 21st century audience in all its iterations - and intersections. And it is beautiful, full-colour: a book I would easily acquire for my coffee table.

Leaning toward Light is a beautifully done small anthology of not just poems but short introductions, recipes, and art as well. The poems touch on the power of working the land, seeing the beauty in what can be produced, and the memories that can be evoked through sight and smell.
Collecting poems and snippets from some of the most well-known, the best, and creative up and coming poets, Leaning toward Light offers something to touch the soul of everyone.

I admit I laughed out loud, cried, and travelled down my own memory lane as I read the words collected in the digital pages. I have even tried a recipe or two so far using produce from my own little container garden and found them to be delicious!

This really is a wonderful collection that readers of poetry and those that want to give it a try will greatly enjoy and appreciate.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this work in exchange for my honest review.

I adored this book. The recipes, the grouping of works, and the content meant so much to me. I was particularly fond of the poem by Jericho Brown and the Poem about an authors late son. The latter in particular made me cry in the middle of the night while reading it next to my toddler who was struggling to sleep.

If you love the environment, and like poetry (even a little bit) I believe fully that you will find at least a handful of works in this book that will sustain you and make you feel. Most of them did for me, I found myself reading poem after poem, and noting down the authors so that I could find more of their work.

This is a great anthology, and it was clearly compiled with love and atttention.

This was an absolutely gorgeous book, full of soul nourishing poems!! The format got a little wonky on audiobook, but I’m really excited to buy a copy of this since the illustrations were really beautiful too.

The poetry was beautiful, though it is a very niche set of poems (understandably). I think if you love gardening, this would be a beautiful collection to have.

This was a lovely book that felt like a warm hug on a breezy, sunny day. I enjoy anthologies, and reading a collection of various pieces in relation to gardening was relaxing. It was great reading different works and seeing how different authors present their thoughts on gardening and nature. I also liked how this book wasn’t strictly complied of poems, but of personal pieces, paragraphs, recipes and beautiful illustrations. I definitely recommend this book to those who want a happy, light read!

Thank you NetGalley for providing me the opportunity to read this.

"Yet as I weeded through a great stack of gardening anthologies, I realized that many felt quite historic. Others were academic, tracing the history of garden literature from the important insight that the English word paradise comes from a Persian word for "walled garden"."

I am so grateful to say that this book provided by Storey Publishing and Tess Taylor through NetGalley is my very first ARC ever, and wow, what a way to start.

I was instantly drawn to it when I saw the cover, probably Thee most gorgeous cover I've seen in years, and when I read the subtitle, "Poems for Gardens & the Hands That Tend Them", I knew I would love this. I never imagined I needed this book, but after finishing it, I realize how much of me is buried on these pages.

I took the book into my little garden; I'm very fortunate to have a patch of land where the sun hits for hours during the day to grow my treasures. It's wintertime here now, so everyone is kind of asleep, apart from my chives. Do chives ever stop? I don't think I've ever seen a bunch of chives stopping to just relax and not grow anything for a while. The parsley is also doing quite nice, though I haven't picked it up in a while because ants have colonized the inner stems and roots in the shape of an aphid farm. When I saw it at first, I thought they were eggs, but upon closer inspection the eggs had little legs and squirmed a bit whenever touched even slightly. I've read online that you can kill them all off quite easily, but there's no reason to. I respect ants so much. Plus, the parsley continues to strive even with all the aphids. My basils - I have two varieties growing, Genovese and Spicy Globe basil - are the ones who were hit the hardest by the cold, and their yellowing leaves have become a favourite spot for spiders and other tiny crickets. I leave them be as well, but when spring comes, I'll have to rehouse them somewhere. I sat there for hours, listening to the birds and raising my eyes from the pages every once in a while, telling myself: I'm not the only one.

In the book, I could see myself in everyone else's gardens. When they described their growings, I sometimes I had to look something up or another, only to find out that we're all surrounded by so much of the same, everywhere in the world, even if we have wildly different names for this same. I know what they mean when they talk about the shift in the time and space that happens in gardens, even the smallest, most discrete, narrowest ones, surviving despite the odds in the concrete mess of big cities. I know what they mean when they talk of the silence in gardens, how meditative it becomes despite ourselves and our anxieties, how forced we are to be gentle and meticulous in a time of rush and hurry. I cried when I read about the way grief is always around us when we're at a garden, how life and death are always there, at the same time, never apart, one season bringing about openings and closings at once. My absolute favourite poem from the whole anthology - which I learned in this book means "a collection of flowers" - is one called "Feeding the Worms" by Victoria Chang, which begins like this:

"Ever since I found out that earth worms have taste buds all over the delicate pink strings of their bodies, I pause dropping apple peels into the compost bin, imagine the dark, writhing ecstasy, the sweetness of apples permeating their pores."

I cried and laughed when I found this one, because it is something I experienced so strongly it felt like I had written it myself. I used to feel almost scared of worms, of how they squirmed desperately upon being discovered under the earth, how slimy and cold their pale bodies were; ever since I started to garden, I've grown fond of them to the point where I can't move and stir the earth with any tools, afraid I might hurt them. I dig all the way to my wrists, and when I find a worm, long and thick and fat from all the pits and pieces of veggies and tea bags we've left for them, I don't flinch. Rather, my heart warms up. I put it back on the dark chocolate earth with a promise of more. I love worms now. They're what makes the soil breathe!

I don't know if I would've loved this book so much if I wasn't already a baby gardener, if I wasn't already in love with worms and with the spider webs and the silence. I don't know if past me, who was very "urban-minded" and didn't care at all for the birds who woke her up each morning - who hated mornings, imagine that! - would have felt any curiousity or desire if she had read that book. I do however recommend it to everyone, whether you live among abundant greenery that you take for granted or if you have a tiny herb planter section on your apartment windowsill that you treat like daughters. I hope you'll finish the book with a deep yearning to make your thumbs greener - I personally am looking up ways to build an ever larger green box, and I'll be getting oregano and cherry tomatoes seeds later in the week, to hopefully see them blossom around christmas.

A nice book but not really what I was expecting. I felt it was more of a short memoir than a poetry book. I am not a fan of memoirs but I liked a few poems.
Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I am not a gardener, but may be I’ll become one after reading this enjoyable and diverse collection of poems.

This is such a truly beautiful book!

Is there anything more joyful than going to the forest and reading a collection of poems which are truly beautiful and captivating .
Thank you so much to the author and publishers for this wonderful read

Thank you to #Netgalley and #Storeypublishing for granting me access to this arc in return for an honest review.

Leaning toward light is a beautiful. meaningful poetry anthology from diverse authors all accompanied with gorgeous illustrations by Melissa Castrillon. The theme is a celebration of plants and the joy they can bring and our compulsive need to grow and nurture gardens and our personal plant collections.
It's a must-buy for me. Highly recommended.