Whenever a collection of poetry hits on such a variety of topics and themes-- in this case, sociopolitical poetry, love, nature, and self-- it can be hard to pin down feelings for the collection as a whole. I'm giving this 3 stars because some of the poetry was very good, some of the poetry was so-so but had some great lines that really stuck out, and some really failed to catch my interest at all. I'm not really into nature poetry-- it feels very samey to me-- so I didn't really care for any of those poems. The love poems had some great lines but the poems themselves were just already. The poetry dealing with issues of self and sociopolitical stuff were a mixture of good and meh, the problem in the weaker poems usually being that they felt too constrained when they should have really dug in to raw emotional imagery.

There were a few poems in this collection that I enjoyed, but most of them were lackluster. I couldn't quite grasp the meaning of each poem because it was all over the place. Overall it did what it said it would do in the synopsis, but it just wasn't for me.

Thank you netgalley for letting me read this for an honest review.

The hype and cover for this book are both amazing! Poetry in all of its forms are potentially helpful to humanity, and I think this author is not an exception.

This book is very amazing, such a moving poem for me. Definitely one of my favorite.

Bending the Universe by Justin Anthony Wetch is the commercial reprinting of his first collection of poetry. Wetch is an artist, poet, photographer, musician, pretentious egomaniac, and messy-haired fool from Palmer, Alaska.

This collection covers several themes and the themes are laid out in a way that benefits the book overall. The first section, "Society," is very hard hitting. The faults and failures of modern America are described in detail. The pace is fast and jumps from point to point. Once realizing the Wetch is a musician so I took to reading his work more as urban lyrics. This seemed to work well as there is no real line structure and what meter there is seems to be more like hip-hop. “Church” is one of the best in that part of the collection and shows promise as poetry. The topics are current and reflect the thinking of many.

The section “Love” fell flat with me except for the opening poem “Your song on the Radio.” Perhaps, it was nostalgia calling me. The other poems seemed a bit trite and overplayed. The third section, "Life," is a bit strong than “Love” but lacks the power of "Society". There still seems to be the essence of the current trend of writing platitudes and four or five line poems:

It is such a pity how some people
Are dead long before their hearts stop beating.
This old man died at twenty-five
When life told him to stop dreaming

To Wetch’s credit, his poems are much longer and more thought out than the new current trend of writers. He seems to be trying to bridge the gap between lyricist and poet. “Empty Wealth” sounds like it could have been an 80s metal song:

Matching Rolex watches
Not happy after all
Bought a huge new mansion
With gold-plated walls.

A garage full of Lamborghinis
Can’t fill an empty heart
Sometimes even the rich
Wish for a fresh start.

I don’t think that is too far from a from Def Leppard or Quiet Riot. I like it. It’s really good as an 80s rock lyric.

The final two sections “Personal” and “Nature” allows the poet to finish stronger than expected. Personally, this is a hit and miss selection for me. Although the misses outnumber the hits, the hits when present are potent and enough to save this collection. This collection would be best for those looking for lyrics than traditional poetry.

This is such an honest and personal poetry book that many people can relate to but sadly I was not able to. However, besides that point I suggest reading it and checking other peoples opinions on GoodReads.

I genuinely liked this! I don't often read poetry but these poems centered around realistic, common and current scenarios was a good enough reason for me to keep reading them. The collection is divided into five sections, five essential topics that basically sums up everyone--society, love, life, personal and nature. The first section opened with a bang and I couldn't help but smile at how relatable some stanzas were; the commonly seen and felt instances were well-constructed in a manner that didn't come across too harshly but the point was made evident. The other sections were good too, but a few poems in each part seemed a bit rushed and not particularly overwhelming, something I expect from poetry. While this erratic selection worked greatly in a few bits, they did tone down the excitement in a few. Regardless, I would certainly recommend this to those who love their poems transpired from real-life experiences, thoughts and circumstances, giving the readers a transparent vision.

A very hit-and-miss collection that occasionally shone brilliantly but mostly fell flat.

This book was alot. This has opened my eyes to a whole new perspective on the way things are viewed now, and many aspects of the way things are. I would recommend this book to anyone who focuses on social things such as equality, rights, and things in that nature. Personally, I'm not a big reader on things with this type of meaning and I wouldn't read this again but I am also glad I did. If you decide to read this book, read it with an open mind.

"Earlier today I saw a flame war on Twitter -
They fought with weapons of misspelled words,
Their shells were snarky comments, a retweet button,
And a bag full of voraciously vulgar verbs."

Just an amazing reading! So real it hurts!