The poetry collection was heartfelt and definitely worth the time, effort, and money required in acquiring it.

Let's call this review "Lost in waves of complexity"

The introduction comes off a little pompous and purposefully muddled; "We live more in alignment with the love that we are". What? And the bit about awareness is rather loosely tacked together. I felt out of the loop from the start... Although, she says these poems come "from the heart and not the head", so I convinced myself that I was intellectualising too much. But then I read the poems... and found that she is OVER intellectualising and intentionally saying things that are incomprehensible in order, it seems to me, to appear intelligent and 'aware...'

Generally, I feel the poems are overly dramatic and navel-gazing with no real beauty or significance. There's no nuance or subtext, no opportunity to see yourself reflected in the poems. It is only what it is; for example; 'Live it':

"I am angry. He annoyed me.
I am happy." (What?)
...
"Misunderstanding,
understanding, the
disintegration of both"

And all this existential blabbing about awareness... Ugh. There is a desperation, as though the poet is working out her need for self-actualisation and purpose in the face of life's indisputable mundane-ness. And yet, all she can offer is mundane. And also, she might be God? ("I Am"). "The impossibility of ego dissolves into awareness" (Meeting Point). Ugh! It's just ego... IMO

"Wave"
"At your essence
You are the wave
Experiencing itself"

What?

There were some really funny bits...
"From pure consciousness" in one poem (Please elaborate! What is pure consciousness?) to "Walking (Dawn Walks at Sea 2) which is essentially about a person's butt making an infinity symbol as they walk. Haha!

Perhaps I am too much of a simple dunce to appreciate this collection.
I didn't hate "Child of this Land", "All Shall Be Well"

Honestly, I did not finish this. 50% seemed like enough to know what I could expect from the rest.

Enjoyed this one quite a bit. Read a bit like a self-help book, and was similar in style to Rupi Kaur, but I had a fun time reading this one.

Unfortunately I have to admit that I completely missed the depth that I expected to experience through these poems after reading the description. Most of the poems seemed a bit flat, I simply couldn't get into them... I got what they were talking about, I got the message; but I couldn't for my life *feel* them. And that's what I would expect from poetry, that's what makes it great: not the meaning in itself, but the overflowing feeling that resonates with you. I didn't get that here.

Since poetry is a very subjective thing, I give this collection 3 stars. Not my cup of tea, but that doesn't mean others won't enjoy it more than I did.

The Poetry of True Nature, author and teacher Sara Priestley continues her longtime exploration of both knowledge and experience, moving through reflections, emotions, and inner dialogue to reach a fuller recognition of the abundance of being. She frames this journey using the five fundamental elements of the universe as themes, grouping poems using the principles of earth, water, air, fire, or essence. Not only does this framework help with the discovery of meaning but also the attribution of it, coloring each poem with a new light.


I enjoyed this collection of poems and read it in one sitting. I will re-read it in the future and plan to read it at a much slower pace to allow myself to ruminate over the poetry.

Another volume of "PLATITUDES, NOT POETRY." While Priestley's focused on interesting subject matter, simply typing simple sentences with weird line breaks doesn't make something poetry. Educate yourself and TRY HARDER.

I wanted to like this book but I just couldn't. It's supposedly poetry that makes uses of nature elements but it mostly felt like random rambling. Not a terrible book but just not for me.

Excellently written and a brilliant read. Couldn't have imagined a bunch of poems on romantic themes like these before but truly a must read.

***i received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review***


I try so hard to never say this, but i HATED this book. This author tried way too hard to sound deep when it just comes out as a bunch of gibberish. It’s confusing af, not interesting. Took me almost a month to finish and was honestly a waste of my time but i pride myself on finishing all books so i swore i would. But i am thankful i didn’t waste any money on this book bc it actually sucks and I’m sad I decided to read it. I’m gunna go reread an old favorite just to feel better. Do not waste your time on this book.

I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Netgalley.

uplifting collection of poetry. great quick read.

These poems are similar in length and presentation to Rupi Kaur, and similar in subject matter to Rachel Hollis' self-help books (sense of self + spirituality). They are easy to grasp and quick to read. I expect that a lot of people will enjoy this book.

Coming at it with a literature background, I was a little disappointed. Any time I pick up a book of poems I hope for something to chew on - something to work through. The subject matter of these poems did encourage personal introspection, however, the devices and imagery had little depth. I realize that trendy short poetry collections are easily accessible and very surface level. But I think there could have been some depth to the literacy devices used. As it is, it reads a lot like a diary.

I did really enjoy the poem "Walk Gently in the Fields of Time."

4.5/5 stars. This poetry collection was a nice, quick, and refreshing read. With several of the poems really making me think, and making me feel. It was nice to be able to just read, and read, without multiple things going on, on the pages. Overall a great read for those who are a fan of poerty.

Beautiful poetry!
I am always looking for nice poetry and i am lucky that i came across this book. there are different types of poetry- some are cheap, some are poetic, some can stirr inner feelings in you and some can heal your soul. I found all these types of these poetry except the cheap ones here!
A poetry collection always reflects the personality of the poet, and i think Sara has an incredible soul who sees things " inside-in".
Poems get better and better as the book comes to an and, The gift and the English country lane is two of the favourite poems from the book.
Looking forward to read more from Sara!

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. I was really drawn to this books because of the cover, it’s absolutely gorgeous. The poetry was pretty well written; although, I preferred the shorter poems compared to the longer ones. This is a fairly short read, and there are poems for each of the elements which I thought was pretty cool. If you’re into poetry, you’d probably enjoy this collection of poems.

This was a nice, quick read, with some really uplifting poems inside.
I particularly enjoyed the recurring theme of spirituality and unconditional love.
The author sectioned the book into elemental themes: earth, water, air, fire, or essence.
I also want to say that the cover is so beautiful!

My only qualm with the book is that some of the poems are rather repetitive and it felt as if I read a few of the same poems over again.
Overall, I liked it!

The author's introduction to this book of poetry presents it as a result of the inside-in thinking she's been honing over the past few years and touts exploration for its own sake. The poems are divided into sections named for the elements: Earth, Water, Air and Fire with one entitled Essence tossed in as well. All of this would seem to infer that the poems that follow might be deep, philosophical and meaningful.

Not so. I found the collection of poems to be mediocre at best, though I did like Impossible, All Shall Be Well and Walk Gently in the Fields of Time. I truly am happy that Ms. Priestly has found something meaningful for her; I'm just not sure she's ready for prime time yet.

My thanks to NetGalley and River Grove Books for allowing me the opportunity to read an ARC of this book in return for an unbiased review. Opinions expressed here are my own.

Overall I didn’t hate it, but I also didn’t love it! I would compare it to something like the modern poetry version of Descartes’ ‘I think, therefore I am’. Though I really struggled to get completely wrapped up in the content and to be able to relate to this writing. The nature themes throughout though was a clever touch and adds more to the poetry itself and the meaning, and generally I enjoyed and found more impact in the shorter poems than the long almost rant like poetry. As a lover of Rupi Kaur and Amanda Lovelace type poetry, I was trying to branch out for a little same same but different, and this didn’t quite hit the spot for me unfortunately! ⭐️⭐️.5 rating for this one!

What a beautiful collection of poetry! This was enjoyable and fast paced. I didn’t want to put it down until I was finished. I will most likely read this several times during my lifetime. This collection is all written based off of nature, but as anything else that is written you can interpret the true meaning of the poetry to anything you feel. I will read anything else she writes and that says a lot coming from a fellow poet.

This book interested me because of its blending of poetry with spirituality. I like the poems that evoked a sense of nostalgia or mystery in me. I also liked the ones that made stop and go, "Huh. Interesting." Additionally, the cover is really beautiful!

However, a vast majority of the poems were repetitive, and I felt like I was reading the same ones over and over again. In addition to that, other poems felt like half conjured thoughts and ideas that were never fully realized. They left me confused and wondering what it was trying to tell me.