Thank you, NetGalley, who provided an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I don't tend to read a lot of poetry. From time-to-time it is nice to break up a cycle of novels with a small book of poetry, just to refresh my palette, which I thought might be the case here. Another nice thing about poetry books that I've found in the past is they're generally easy to get through.

I do feel bad giving this book as low of a review as three stars because it is poetry and it is art and all art is subjective, but the content of a lot of these poems I feel I wasn't in a proper mind-space to understand completely. The poetry was very dark and depressing for the majority of the book, which may speak more to the author's experiences. As someone who doesn't identify as religious, some of the poems were also hard to get through due to the theme of Christianity being so prevalent. In fact, I began skipping those poems because I just wasn't comfortable with it.

Again, poetry is an art-form and all art is subjective. It wasn't something I could connect with, but I'm sure there are people out there who will identify with more of these poems than I did!

"The Voice of My Mind," by T.A. Fish is a rich collection of poetry filled with the ups and downs of life, as well as her spiritual cries out to God. I found this collection to be a fascinating and quick read with lots of chew on. There is an interesting, eclectic array of poems that are all well-written with a beautiful rhythm and flow.

The poet relies heavily on repetition and rhetorical questions to highlight her subjects and ask questions to the reader without any specific answers. The result is a reflective work that is thought-provoking.

Some of my favorite poems include: Misunderstood, If Only, A Shrewd Voice, Dark Fruit, Alone, Lost, Query, Victory and Joy. There was so much in this small collection of about 60+ poems that these will be enjoyable to return to time and time again.

I definitely recommend this book!

I received this as an eBook from BookBaby via NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review of the title. I did not receive any compensation from either company. The opinions expressed herein are completely my own.

It has been a while since I’ve read a poetry book. And upon seeing this here in Netgalley. I decided to pick it up.

What this book made me feel was a tad bit nostalgic of my high school and college days when I was starting to fall more and more in love with poetry and have tried (and failed) to write magnificent poems. These poems kind of fell under that kind of voice and style, often sappy and pubescent.

I did like a few entries though! Like this one:

“How long,
May I wake?
The rumbling earth
Doth shake.

How long,
Will I mourne?
The pessimist
Doth scorn.

How long,
Is the time?
The fear of madness
Is benign.

How long,
Will she love?
The lightning of death,
Falls,
From above.

How long,
Will I be torn?
The burden of life
Since I was born.”

It's hard to rate poetry books. They are usually written from the heart, but that doesn't mean the reader can relate to them.
I gave this book 3 stars because they were written beautifully, I just personally felt they were missing more raw intensity. When I read poetry, I want my breath to be taken away. I want chills. I didn't get that from this book.
Don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. It's just not 5-star worthy for me.
The book is 75 poems long. The poems are short. Most of them are within a paragraph or two. Overall, it's a simple book. Easy read. If you want to read it all at once, it won't take longer than 30 minutes, I don't think.
The first half of the poems seem to be about Death and Sorrow. However, it starts with a poem about God and the second half of the book is mostly Love, God and Hope. It's a great flow.
"A Shrewd voice" was my favorite poem. That's the only one I had to stop reading to fully digest the impact of the words.
Cherish, Tortured and Dark Fruit were some of the poems I had to read twice just because they were fun to read. Not only did they make sense in a deep level, but they rhymed beautifully which is nice because I often find that poets spend time trying to make words fit that the message loses meaning.

I was not expecting this poetry book to be so religious. It wasn’t a book I could get through I couldn’t relate to what was being said. Felt more like a prayer than poetry.

I just didn't connect with the poetry here. The rhyming poems might be more appealing to others, but I found it made for a lack of stimulating metaphors and vocabulary choices. The religious themes were also a bit alienating for me personally. I see there might be an audience for this simple kind of poetry, but this 30-something librarian is not it.

The title and cover express the uneven nature of this title. There is poetry that reaches but does not quite touch. There are also psalms and poems of great depth and energy that pull at the mind and soul.

Was unable to finish this book, the writing was far too clunky, and the rhyming pattern made it incredibly difficult to enjoy. The word choices felt as though the poet had simply used a thesaurus, there was little flow at all.

This poetry collection was really enjoyable and kept me reading. I loved how it was mixed between longer poems and shorter poems and some religious poems but, not so many that it was overpowering. This collection actually made me smile a few times and laugh even though it was a serious matter.

The Voice of My Mind by T. A. Fish, 84 pages.
BookBaby, 2019. $10.
Language: G (0 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: G; Violence: G
BUYING ADVISORY: HS - OPTIONAL
AUDIENCE APPEAL: LOW
Fish shares his thoughts through this collection of poems. Touching on topics of love, spirituality, regret, and purpose, Fish communicates with readers through short poems and rhyme.
While I liked how most of the poems seemed to flow in a natural progression of theme, some of the poems broke that flow of the overall collection. More irritating to me, though, was when the poems broke their own inner structure of rhyme established in the first couple of stanzas. I failed to grasp the overall idea of the collection, but I did really like about six of the poems as they spoke to my heart and made me stop to ponder the ideas Fish proposed.
Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

This was a really great collection of poetry, and very different from most contemporary poetry since it have a rhyming scheme and was very reminiscent of older poets. I really liked this one!

The Voice of My Mind, by author T. A. Fish, is an avant-garde poetry collection that took over 5 years to complete. It took me a lot less time to read - and I’m sorry to say, I rushed through the last few because they were just too similar and the structure too painful to read.

For example:

There was a little boy,
Staring quietly, without coy.

Upon, seeing his friend,
His eyes light up, end to end.

The punctuation was unnecessary for starters - but…eyes lighting up end to end? What does that even mean? With regards to the content - most of the poems were about death or depressing/negative topics although the second half of the book perked up a little. I think like with all poetry, you do have to be in the mood for certain poems at certain times in your life. For me right now, this was just a book filled with poorly written and structured negativity.

I hate giving bad reviews, especially when its clear the author worked so hard, but this one didn’t do it for me. This book of poetry was provided to me through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review, and it was…okay. I love poetry and consider myself pretty lenient, though I do have one bias and this book hit it right on the head: everything rhymed. So is that really a critique or just a personal preference? Eh, both, honestly. I can get past any bias of mine if the work is stellar, but this just didn’t move me or touch me emotionally the way I expect poetry to do. The author explores themes of darkness and death, as well as feeling at home in your own mind and trying to understand the world. The work was clear and clean and if you like poetry that rhymes and reads quickly, you may love this way more than I did.

A book of poetry is a fickle thing. Some times the words flow and the author so magically is able to speak to your soul. Inside this book I did find a few that I loved, but .... Unfortunately for me this just wasn't my cup of tea.

The Voice of My Mind is a short collection of poetry by T.A. Fish. I liked the initial idea of the collection, however there were several things that put me off of it. The religious poetry didn't bother me, but it seemed very run of the mill in my opinion. The rhyme scheme was also very simplistic and felt like it limited the thoughts of the author. I felt like it would have been more beneficial to free the rhyming scheme and actually put their thoughts into a better word selection. It seemed very gimmicky to me. There was potential here, but it just didn't meet my hopes for it.

I received a copy of this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A short collection of poems, including spiritual and philosophy. They are mesmerizing and captivating . I love poetry and this is one of my favourites this year.

The Voice Of My Mind by T.A. Fish is filled with emotional poems. These verse are easy to identify with in a few moments. There is a mention of Edgar Allan Poe. If his works have been read in a book or seen in a movie, the vocabulary used here will seem familiar: torment, poisons, madness and snares.

Those words need not lead to anxiety. The poems put us in position to hope for a richer tomorrow. Always, there is a net of support cast over us. Therefore, the "soul" continues to "lament on a life" unknown. It is a part of our quest.

Perhaps, there are too many poems in this one volume. Since the poems are so meaty, great quantity does not seem necessary. It might also help to have fewer themes in one book.

There are also images from Nature, Science and Religion. These disciplines are an aid in understanding love, malice and ourselves. Watch for butterflies, eagles and other birds.

Oh, I hate to give this book a negative review because it's obvious the author put a lot of heart into these poems. However, the writing style just seemed overly simplistic to me. The rhymes are expected and there are a lot of commas where there shouldn't be commas. (I did receive an ARC, so this may be changed in the final edition, but that doesn't change the rhymes.)

Here's an example of a poem so you can see what I mean. These verses are pulled from "Toxic."

Whispering in my ear
A woman, whom I fear

Ear and fear are quite simple rhymes, and you don't need the comma between woman and whom. Later in the poem:

A kiss of poison sweets
Piercing, my hearts sheath

"Hearts" needs an apostrophe, and you don't need the comma after "piercing." Plus, this couplet doesn't have any significant meaning in relation to the rest of the poem, in my opinion. Here's one more example from the poem "Friendship."

There was a little boy,
Staring quietly, without coy.

Upon, seeing his friend,
His eyes light up, end to end.

I read this a couple times because I was waiting for it to make sense. But I can't figure out what it's trying to say. Honestly, this collection just isn't my cup of tea. The rhymes come across as trite and unnecessary, leaving me unable to connect with the content. I hate to leave a negative review, I really do. I'm sure there are readers out there who will love this collection, so my recommendation is to read some of the poems and see for yourself.

*Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for a review.*

I love my poems served as raw as the Poet can, and T. A. Fish did just that with this collection.
I'm glad the publisher granted my request via Netgalley to read this book, and I know that readers would relate to and cherish a bunch of poems herein.

I’m no real fan of rhyming poetry, but TA Fish might help change that. I loved the subject matter if these verses and Fish shows a talent for arranging these words. Plenty of poetry to love in this book.