The Weight of Snow is a lovely meditation on nature as it relates to very human situations. I enjoyed every moment of this masterfully crafted work by an appealing and perceptive poet. Favorites include the following:

At Henry Powell Park, Early Winter, in which the speaker ruminates on both the changing of trees and the aging of her mother.
Saplings, a short poem about ruin and renewal as seen in clear cut redwoods from which sapling sprout the following year.
Morning illustrates the predawn awakening of a grieving widower whose attention is drawn to a sleet filled persimmon tree as he remembers his wife. Upon remembering details of her life, morning breaks.

Bruce is clearly talented and observant, and her poems touch my soul.

I read a lot of poetry, and after reading this book I immediately looked up other books by this poet, which is a big compliment for me. I really enjoyed it and thought it was well written.

Beautiful collection of poetry, both vivid and emotional. The imagery is exquisite and I'm so happy that I got a chance to read these all together because I feel like on their own they are great but when you read them as a collection you can truly appreciate the interwoven imagery and motifs that are present throughout.

'Then, I was made to unlearn fear,
the maw it creates when I am left in
silence,
knowing the restless demons
brooding in you ---
your anger in the dark,
with years, my nervousness,
conversations through closed doors.'

I love poems about nature. There is something magical about the images evoked by poets that usually relax me as they transport me away from my urban existence. Though I was unfamiliar with Bruce's work before reading this book, her style and themes remind me of Mary Oliver.

Last year I started actively reading poetry, in a way I haven't since I was in my high school English class. I'd read a number of poetry book in the decades (oh dear lord, has it really been decades) since then, discovering Rumi and Mary Oliver, the last year and a bit has led me to other poets, some of which I have liked, and some did absolutely nothing for me (There's a collection that has been on bestseller lists for a long time that I found mostly annoying).

BL Bruce's first collection, The Weight of Snow, was definitely a book I liked. The poems, for the most part, seem to occupy the border between wild lands and inhabited lands. It is very nature based, leaving an impression of winter along with late fall and early spring. You know, wet and muddy, and grey. Not all the poems fit into that season, so maybe I'm influenced by the title and the current season (in Ottawa, we are expecting snow and ice and rain this weekend, even though it is mid-April)

It also deals a lot with love, but similarly, it leaves a heavy impression of a love whose days are numbered. I don't know what the author's personal relationships were like, but the poems left me with a feel of two women living with the knowledge that despite their love, the relationship is crumbling around the edges.

The feeling I was left with at the end was a soft melancholy. Not the depressing type, but the melancholy that leaves you embracing flashes of blue sky because it is so intensely blue, and who knows what the sky will be like tomorrow.

This was a beautiful book, with a lot of really deep poems. I loved how the author draws parallel with nature and her emotional state. Flawlessly executed♥

I'm surprised to say that I couldn't quite get into this collection of poems. Although I can still appreciate the beauty in the verses, and found the word flow to be enjoyable. I can imagine that many people will find comfort, and calmness while getting lost in this collection. With all that being said, I do still consider this to be a perfect gift for a handful of people I know.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I truly appreciate it!

to be honest, i was first intrigued about this book by it's cover! What a nice cover and i am one of those readers who i totally judge a book by it's cover :D Short book and short poems, which i really like, instead of these very long poems! Short and very powerful poems!! i really enjoyed the majority of the collections, however some poems i felt were not so interesting, at least for me, but the i liked the majority of them!

Will definitely recommend this!

The Weight of Snow is a beautifully written collection of poems written by B.L. Bruce. I am usually the tedious person when diving into poetry especially by authors I have never heard before. I was astonished to realize that I actually enjoyed this collection and that I did go into it hesitantly only to finish knowing that I had made a good decision.

I felt a little confused and bored going through some of the poems that were teetering on repetitive and scatter-brained. I felt that the author was trying very hard to write a certain way but found that the writing sometimes didn't convey what the author's point was. The repitition was easily forgivable but the constant pointer towards birds was borderline obsessive. However, these faults are easy to forgive.

A lot of these poems were heartbreaking and easy to understand even though one may not have experienced the same grief or loss. These poems were about love, and the loss of someone as well as dealing with the shame of ones self through the eyes of someone who cannot forget.

I found myself looking forward to each piece immediately after the next. I will definitely keep my eye on the author to see improvements in the future.

Happy reading!

Wonderful poems that reflect so much emotion and nature. Calming and nostalgic, the verses evoke imagery and feelings from the readers.

I loved this set of poetry. They make you pay attention due to the interwoven themes in the subtly written poems.
They are highly enjoyable and easy to get through.
i highly recommend!

The Weight of Snow is a powerful read and the emotion it conveys was strong. I expected a "snow" related poetry but I was amazed that it follows the whole season not just focusing on the "snow", what a twist I did not expect.

I received a free advanced digital copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This has no effect on my opinion, rating, or review

I loved The Weight of Snow: New & Selected Poems! Ms. Bruce uses wonderful, succinct, yet evocative prose to describe nature and human relationships. I felt as if I was there with her, seeing what she was seeing, feeling what she was feeling. This book hooked me immediately and I read through it joyfully in one sitting. I will definitely keep it to read again and again.

Her phrasing is simply beautiful! An example I particularly like is from the poem Hailstorm: "When the hail stops, you pause, tilting your head backward upon that same rain-wet neck and I see tomorrow, see poetry in the angle of your throat, then the ocean in your eyes, its tides pulsing in my veins."

MANY thanks to Netgalley and publisher Books Go Social for introducing me to this wonderful poet! All opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own.

When I saw the title of this book it reminded me of a haiku and I became curious . B.L. Bruce captured me with her poetry as soon as I started reading. The poems present snapshots of different moments in live, painting vivid pictures of nature landscapes and evoking a whole range of emotions. B.L. Bruce writes about love, loss, hurt, the fragility of human existence and love of nature. On a personal level I can relate to many of the poems in the book. They bring up my own memories and make me think of my loved ones. I can only recommend to pick up this book and read it.

There are certainly moments where these poems of grief/loss, longing and memory (and their natural setting) begin to touch me briefly. Yet they are, for me, too few and fleeting. The poet does have a certain knack with style/structure and descriptive language ....yet I don't ever feel that I'm given quite enough in this anthology. While I can appreciate a concise piece, I am also left feeling that the poems often seem cut off, as though there should be more to follow and the author ran out of steam or reached the limit of some kind of self-imposed word allocation. For me to truly appreciate poetry it needs to grasp me more solidly emotionally and to paint with words a much clearer, more vibrant image than happens here. Not bad by any means, but consistently misses the high points poetry is able to achieve, in my opinion.

In all of the poetry collections I have read lately, I've often found that more often than not too much is attempted in too little space. Anthologies vary in length and range but the best ones I have found are often the concise, focused volumes such as The Weight Of Snow. This little book was so much more than I was expecting it to be. It was bold, beautiful and painful. By focusing in on these vibrant metaphors of life, especially rotating around those themes of death and ending which come with winter, Bruce creates an ongoing juxtaposition which really leaves you thinking long after you've finished reading. For me, this was definitely the case with two of the shortest poems (almost haiku or sonnet in length): Sapling and The Blue Scarf. When you imagine these things against the white backdrop of winter at the precipice of a new season, the imagery is so vibrant that it dances off the page right before you. It was magical to see these flashes of brilliance achieved in so few words and whilst the longer poems were also enjoyable, I would really like to see Bruce write more in this style. These were the moments for me where I felt like all of that focus and concentration were rounded up into one spot to be gazed upon, like an oil painting. This is one that I think is going to stick with me for a while and for anyone who has ever loved or lost anyone, I can highly recommend. Absolutely breathtaking.

I reside in a country that's never had snow. I've never experienced snow, but I've seen it grace some of the mountains we have and just for that, I could not help but feel comforted and drawn to this collection of poems.
Three poems, "Clay", "What Remains" and "Narrowed" stood out for me. A great collection for any reader who relishes detail in their poems. Thank you for the eARC NetGalley.

Absolutely breathtaking and spellbinding; imagery and beauty condensed magnificently.

A lovely collection of poems, each imparting a very human moment or emotion (love, loss, joy, memory), and each wrapped in a quiet, subtle nature vignette. You don't always have to yell or be flashy to get a point across - this book is a great example.

This was a wonderful read for a snowy week. It is highly readable and the attention is in the details, The emotional was heartfelt and I loved how the author invoked nature.