I’m conflicted.
I actually liked nearly every beginning, but was irritated and pushed out of my poetic flow by the endings. I guess this kind of poetry is just isn’t my cup of tea, sadly.

When reading poetry I expect to feel something. And even though I found some of the poems really beautiful, I had a hard time to connect the poems.
Some of the poems I don't think I understood. I'm okay with the abstract but in this case I think it was too much so I was thinking more of the meanings instead of understanding and feeling.
It may not be my cup of tea.

I really, really wanted to like this book. The writing was very flowy and painted a beautiful picture. The only problem was that those pictures made no sense. I love flowery language in poetry, but I found that this writing used a lot of pretty words to say a whole lot of... nothing. Maybe it was just too obscure and I'm just not 'getting the big picture,' but I just really didn't enjoy this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC in return for an honest opinion.

"We Shed Our Skin Like Dynamite" is a refreshing, even simple, in a kind of high-resolution photographic sense of the term, depiction of intimacy and identity. The experience of reading the poems is a bit like a twirling dance, where you move across the room being passed on from partner to partner but your gaze is always somewhere, moving from one detail to the next. It's the perfect kind of ambiguity and open-ended-ness that is abstract without becoming purposefully obtuse.

It really came down to the instinctive, almost gut feeling of being hooked, and while the opening section of Clayton's debut certainly did that to me, I didn't have the same kind of reaction further into the collection, so while I enjoyed "We Shed Our Skin Like Dynamite" on a technical, poetic level, emotionally I wasn't quite on the same page.

i found it really hard to read this book in an online format through Kindle, which was disappointing given how much I liked the prose

This was a great poetry book. I really enjoyed reading it. It was modern style poetry and well written. Some of the poems left me wanting more. There are poems about every day life, love, and some of the poems were a little on the dark side which I personally enjoy. I highly recommend this book to all poetry lovers.

We Shed Our Skin Like Dynamite is Conyer Clayton's debut book of poetry, which, in its description, promises to discuss "experiences with addiction and co-dependence, sex and art, nature and death," which is quite a wide range for one book of poetry. Although some of these themes are more subtle than others (I found the addiction-related themes less obvious at times, but the nature part remains clear throughout.)

What I really liked about the volume (in addition to its awesome title) is the motifs and images that recur in the poems--trees are prominent, as is water and leaves. I also like the way that Clayton formats her poems, with the white spaces coming to carry meaning, sometimes illustrating the passage of time or causing the reader to pause, and to think. It also fits nicely with the tree motif.

Where this collection fell a little flat for me was in terms of its imagery--or rather, the collections of imagery. Many of the poems are deftly written, with a group of well-written images that create a picture or narrative. However, in others, despite the beauty/interest of the imagery, the poems didn't always cohere. There were a couple where it was difficult to figure out what the point was, or what the imagery was meant to accomplish within the poem. Even in rereading, and considering it in terms of the poems before and after these challenging ones didn't help me figure it out.

However, overall I liked the poems, and the subtlety of the themes. I particularly liked the focus on nature and its use in expressing the speaker's experiences. It's a good debut collection with interesting ideas, and I look forward to seeing further work from this poet.

***Thank you to NetGalley for providing me a complimentary copy of TWE SHED OUR SKIN LIKE DYNAMITE by Conyer Clayton in exchange for my honest review.***

3.25/5

<i>It's a visual journey through grief and unhappiness, an ethereal experience of thoughts that strike you like the current of a rushing river. </i>

This is Clayton's first full length collection of poems, and it's a perfect debut.
Her poems enchant the reader with a vulnerability Clayton is not scared to show, creating beautiful images in the reader's mind.
While some poems can seem puzzling at a first read, I found them extremely relatable once I took the time to ponder on her incredible choice of words. It's not a light read, but it's a read which will be worth your time.
I look forward to what this author is going to publish in the future

In her debut poetry collection, Conyer Clayton sheds her skin to reveal true vulnerability. We Shed Our Skin Like Dynamite is the title the author gave a collection of deeply personal poems which speak of life struggles.

The themes of sex, addiction, and emotions are discussed in a way I would describe as tragicomic. As much as the language used is rich, there is also this ambience of contemporary struggle of a young person in the twenty-first century. Because of this, the message is much more relatable and it creates a friendship-like relationship between the author and the reading. I would further explain this relationship as a friendly conversation in which the author tells you what had happened to them.


The poems are divided into the sections which remained unnamed and are only numbered. In my opinion, the poems gradually become more hard-hitting and personal as the book progresses, but that might be due to me getting more familiar with it.

My favourite verse belongs to a poem named What You Actually Lost in the second part of the book. It says: “I see a darkness in my own eyes / a tumour starts to form“. The macabre element gives it power. There is such strength in such a verse. And as much as it’s a metaphor and hyperbole, the verse gives you a glimpse into the hardship the author must have endured to write it.

In conclusion, I really enjoyed this poetry collection. The youth of the author gave a special flavour I rarely find in recent poetry collections. I liked to read poems that dealt with hard topics in a way that wasn’t only tragic and heavy, but also carried a type of youthful humour!

I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

"The wind bursts around the corner of the house,
catches breath
before saying--"

"We Shed Our Skin Like Dynamite" is Conyer Clayton's debut poetry collection. Beautifully written and thought-provoking, it doesn't shove meaning at the reader but makes you think twice or thrice about a poem, maybe (and perhaps intentionally) drawing a full on other meaning out of it than the author intended. This is such a lovely book, the poems so many-layered that they are sure to reveal different meanings every time you re-read it!

This is Conyer Clayton’s debut poetry book. Clayton touches on emotions and the physicality of what it means to be human by exploring sexuality, the art of humanity, and ultimately the journey of the self and what that means.

We Shed Our Skin Like Dynamite is a collection of moments that center around the life struggles and triumphs. They focus on sex and art, addiction and dependence, death and life, while hovering in a very pastoral place. A lot of these poems are rooted in natural imagery, giving it this very ethereal feeling to them; highly praising Claytons ability to match some deeper and darker themes in such a light, flowing way.

A beautifully creative book and highly recommend this poet and her work!

Wanted to say thank you to NetGalley and Guernica Editions for this galley!

Some nice poems (I especially liked Skin Shield, Trace, Southern Belle and Reach into the Hollows) the writing is really beautiful but unfortunately I had difficulty grasping the meaning behind most poems... to be fair I don't read a lot of poetry so maybe readers more used to this genre would find the book less opaque

I wasn’t impressed but this book. I felt like I was solving a riddle at times because it could be quite abstract. Some poems I still don’t understand but I also felt that there was such a focus on being abstract that the the meanings were lost. So I felt like I was reading poetry without a proper backing of emotions.

Reviewing poetry is a delicate task because writing poetry is a highly intimate process. When an author pours her soul onto paper, this in itself is the most beautiful thing in the world. However, I review poems through my own impressions and ability to understand the author, which is by no means an objective assessment.

To me, unfortunately, the best thing about this collection was its title. I've worked full time as an AP & IB English tutor, so I have analyzed my fair share of poems, but I had never come across a less intelligible tome than this one. As a reader, I want to be able to relate to the verses and enjoy certain sensual perceptions of them. Yet, although there were some gems in "We Shed Our Skin Like Dynamite," for instance "Family History," the majority of it comes out as gibberish, a totally random collection of thoughts. Again, it certainly has a deep meaning to the author, but to the reader - it's utter chaos.

That being said, once again, no one has to take my onion as a fact! This collection may as well turn out to be a precious gem to someone else.

*Thank you to the Publisher for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Clayton grabs the reader with prose that are uniquely hers in their vulnerability. While I did not connect with all of the collection, I can appreciate the lovely journey that is woven through Clayton's words. When those words did connect though, they really connected. The metaphors, heavy imagery, or hyperbole are perfectly placed and add just the right amount of feeling and tension. This collection is truly a journey of self, the transcendence of the singular self, and the revelations that come with self discovery through living your life. What is spectacular about collections like what Clayton has created here is that it is so relatable. It touches on those parts of human existence that run linear through experience. Like the poem "Convinced", we can understand, especially at our lowest moments how sometimes it is easier to be fine not only denying the reality to others but trying to deny it to ourselves.

Convinced
This is what was fine, this is what was
fine this is what was
- a faucet turned on
pouring itself out.
Cotton to soak the drip, because yes
we're all fine here -
move along
across the sea. Board
a plane with a set of cards, a handcrafted
game of island. I make trouble
in the next room so you can show
me hour it feels to touch a hand again,
all the photographs deleted.
It's hard to pas up and I never have
before, but suddenly my stomach
rejects what's been roasting
for some time now; a raindrop
on an air-conditioner to keep me
awake, to plug my ears with just
how fine I am, how great great I am
not concerned, no not
at all, not me
not me.

While I do believe this is a beautiful collection, the one negative I would have to point out is accessibility. I get that poetry is not for everyone, but I also think there has been an evolution in poetry that has made it more accessible for readers of every level. Reading through some of the critiques of this collection, that seemed to be a stand out criticism. For me personally, I loved the prose just they way they were written, but I can understand how it can be seen as a negative.

Thanks to her beautifully written, lyrical poems, Conyey Clayton is sure to be a bright new talent on the poetry scene.

The writing is absolutely beautiful and I enjoyed reading this collection of poems. My only complaint is that some of the poems are so abstract that it's hard to understand what the author is trying to say.

This poetry collection was very interesting. There is poems that teach you life lessons and poems that were just absolutely beautiful. One of my favorite poems is this one: Your finger tracing my forehead, What are those eyes for? All back in your head and looking like death, a rehearsal in a parking lot, scolded for being in a tree with a drink — the only place I can see or feel clearly anymore, since you had to choose this month to apologize, to drop a faint and distant line then disappear again — into a fog of blonde hair and swollen skin. I don’t want this. I’d been breathing clearly for months. So I refuse, but refusal does nothing but repeat and convince, repeat and convince no one that I’ve dropped off clear, that I wade in the heavy air alone, suck noodles from a bowl. Cucumber and curry slip through the chopsticks, lost at the bottom. A fish living on sun. I enjoyed this collection as a whole it was an easy read and you didn’t have to read too far into anything to understand what the poet wanted you to see. Once again, I did really enjoy this collection and I do recommend it to anyone who likes poetry.

Lacks depth, power, or a discernible message of any kind. An unremarkable title that I would not recommend. But a colleague of mine enjoyed the work, so the former is, of course, merely my opinion.

The prose of WE SHED OUR SKIN LIKE DYNAMITE is beautiful, thoughtful, and a complicated mess of life.
I fully expected the usual confessional poetry and was pleasantly surprised by the depth of many poems, which touch on subjects such as abortion, sex, and substance abuse. I found the word play interesting and alluring, while occasionally surpassing boundaries I wasn't aware existed. Though it's not my *favorite* collection, it's certainly a cerebral and fluid one, offering up a depth of experience difficult to find in these shallow modern poetic waters.