This was a truly lovely collection of poems. It was an accessible collection in terms of form, but it was also poignant, and at times profound. I bookmarked an actually insane amount of poems as my "favorites" in this collection, but I need to say that at least in the arc version, the fifth section was incredible, and the titular poem almost had me in tears (along with the last one). Overall, a really beautiful, engaging, and intellectually stimulating collection.

“It’s an old word, fading now.
Dearly did I wish.
Dearly did I long for.
I loved him dearly...

Dearly beloved, gathered here together,
in this closed drawer,
fading now, I miss you.
I miss the missing, those who left earlier.
I miss even those who are still here.
I miss you all dearly.
Dearly do I sorrow for you.”


1.5 stars.

When I got accepted for the advance reader's copy of a book of Margaret Atwood's poetry, I was so excited I immediately opened the book up and started reading, eager to take in every word, every little story littered amongst the (electronic) pages. After about 15 minutes, I put it down and didn't pick it up for a week.

This anthology of poems was ... interesting. There is no question that Margaret Atwood is talented, nor that she is creative. She is definitely both of those, as her other works can attest. Her creativity shines through in her poetry, but they were so quirky they were almost ... too much. I'm not sure how to explain it beyond the fact that it sort of felt like I was reading a book by Roald Dahl but then there were mentions of sex and things that made it clear that the wackiness was not meant for children. I'm sure there is an audience for this kind of poetry, whimsical, sort of random, sometimes very deep, but I am not part of it.

I was expecting something entirely different based on the flowery cover, the almost cutesy name, and of course a well-known author. This was not what I received. I think what didn't work out for me the most was how all over the place everything was. There was no underlying narrative (that I could find), no way to tie things together, honestly some of the poems that were even grouped together felt forced there. Out of the entire book, only three poems stick out to me (Songs for Murdered Sisters, Invisible Man, and the titular Dearly). Clearly, she has a way with words, this just wasn't the way for me.

Please note that I received an advance reader's copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

“Sorrow: that’s another word
you don’t hear much any more.
I sorrow dearly.”

Unfortunately, I do not have the comprehension skills to dissect and fully understand these poems. A lot of them sound really good, but without  proper background and upstanding, I have no idea what these poems are trying to say.

This collection reminded me of poems that my English teacher would make us break down word by word and line by line.  Unfortunately, I don’t have the attention span to do that anymore. 

Overall, if you are looking for complex poetry, I would definitely start here.

When a conversation turns to Margaret Atwood's publications, most will not know of her poetry.  She is an accomplished writer whose skills have drawn millions of readers into a world she created.  Her poetry does the same.  The poems range over a lifetime's topics, bringing us into her memories with vivid phrasing, sure to satisfy the hearts and minds of all readers.  This would be an excellent gift for any age, I've several people of my holiday list that are receiving it.

I've loved Atwood's prose since discovering her works in high school (in the early 2000s). The way she tells a story is imaginative and grips you unexpectedly. Her poetry has the same effect, especially as time passes and I age into a deeper experience of life. This collection includes a variety of topics that string together to tell the story of life in today's world, though it doesn't dive into digital culture or current politics. Overall, I enjoyed seeing the world through her eyes for a while.

Book Review: Dearly: New Poems
Author: Margaret Atwood
Publisher: HarperCollins/Ecco
Publication Date: November 10, 2020
Review Date: November 2, 2020

From the blurb: 
“A new book of poetry from internationally acclaimed, award-winning and bestselling author Margaret Atwood.

In Dearly, Margaret Atwood’s first collection of poetry in over a decade, Atwood addresses themes such as love, loss, the passage of time, the nature of nature and - zombies. Her new poetry is introspective and personal in tone, but wide-ranging in topic. In poem after poem, she casts her unique imagination and unyielding, observant eye over the landscape of a life carefully and intuitively lived.

While many are familiar with Margaret Atwood’s fiction—including her groundbreaking and bestselling novels The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments, Oryx and Crake, among others—she has, from the beginning of her career, been one of our most significant contemporary poets. And she is one of the very few writers equally accomplished in fiction and poetry.  This collection is a stunning achievement that will be appreciated by fans of her novels and poetry readers alike.”

This book is a treasure. The first poem brought me to a burst of tears when I finished it. Each poem is crystal clear, direct from Atwood’s life. 
I give this book 1,000 shining stars. If you love good poetry and you love Margaret Atwood, be sure to get yourself a copy. Your own piece of this treasure.

Thank you to Ecco for giving me early access to this incredible book. And thank you to Margaret Atwood for leading the way with your irrepressible light.

This review will be posted on NetGalley, Goodreads, Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

#netgalley #dearly# margaretattwood #poetry #ecco

"The hand on your shoulder. The almost-hand: Poetry, coming to claim you." 

Wow! Wow! Wow! Margaret Atwood did not disappoint! This amazing book of poetry is deep, relevant, and incredibly smart. Atwood covers topics such as love, loss, nature, relationships, and many other things. Her choice of words makes the reader dive deeply into the feelings described. Even though I was never a huge fan of poetry, Dearly made me want to read more of it .... way more ....

A huge thank you to NetGalley for sending me a copy of this e-book free of charge in exchange for an honest review.

Altogether, an eerie, beautiful, and haunting collection of poems and prose from one of the world's most iconic writers.

What am I supposed to say? I mean, c’mon, it’s Margaret Atwood. She’s a literary icon. Overall, every bit of poem and prose was well-written and compelling. Atwood takes the simplest pleasures or heartbreaks that life has to offer, and expands on them: spinning them into something beautiful in her legendary style.

Big thank you to Netgalley + Ecco for sending me a review copy of this book!

I hadn’t realized Margaret Atwood started as a poet, so I was interested to read her new poetry collection, “Dearly.” A lot of it reminded me of the Atwood I’m familiar with from “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “The Testaments”—powerful poems about violence against women and about a future dystopia resulting from climate change. But most moving for me was Part V, the last and seemingly most personal section of the book, filled with poems about aging and the mental and physical decline of a loved one, such as “Mr. Lionheart,” “Invisible Man,” “Within,” and the haunting title poem, “Dearly.” There’s much to enjoy in this collection (along with one strange bit on aliens which I really couldn’t wrap my head around), but it’s this final section of poems that I will most remember and come back to. 

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins for providing me with an ARC of this title in return for my honest review.

Margaret Atwood's long-awaited return to poetry is rich with the usual concerns of poetry (life, death, love, nature), but there are political moments sprinkled throughout. Many of the poems are spiked with human failing, particularly our devastation of the natural environment. However, the collection is not earnest or preachy, and at times, it is quite haunting and beautiful. A welcome return of a strong poetic voice.

In this brand new book of poetry from Margaret Atwood, there's an assortment of compelling, impactful poems, each that tells a story full of compelling language. These poems aim to make you think, feel, dream, desire, yearn, basically all of the feels. There are some wanderlust motifs that make me just want to be able to travel again and messages about being remembered, which from story to story we will remember everything Atwood has shown us long after we've closed the book's pages. Each poem effortlessly flows from one to the next and the book is impeccably organized that I can see how poems and stories are related to each other thanks to seamless and well-positioned transitions. The tones and points of view are very realistic to the modern world, and while less doe-eyed optimistic, it skews on the darker side. There are rhyme schemes that just flow so well when you read these poems aloud. There's definitely a motif of sisterhood and women sticking together in their fight for survival, forgiveness, love, and strength and would you expect anything less from Atwood's work, because she does feminist writings very well at covering such meaningful themes. The poems have such rich language and captivating word choice that tells complex stories that capture the readers thanks to strong symbols and metaphors.

The artist, gently aging, looks back on her life so far and what does she see?  Memories mostly, both precious and painful, of the small moments and the big events that have shaped her existence.  Departing from the narrative formats by which most readers are likely to know her work, she chooses to express her reminiscences and messages through poetry.  That turns out to be the perfect vehicle for the concise and introspective nature of the whole endeavor, even if it requires a little more effort from those of us who are unaccustomed to the genre.

In <i>Dearly</i>, Margaret Atwood offers more than five dozen (depending on how you choose to count some of the stanzas) short poems on subjects such as the tribulations of getting older and the pain of memory loss in loved ones, changes in our natural world, gender roles, animal rights, and heartbreaking acts of violence.  These are clearly topics the author is passionate about and she brings a forceful and thoughtful approach to addressing them all, which is exactly what you would expect from one of our greatest living writers.  What I did not expect was to be so moved by her poetry instead of by the more familiar channel of her long-form fiction.

While each of the poems in the volume stands on its own merit, I definitely had several favorites, including ‘Late Poems’, ‘Salt, ‘Souvenirs’, ‘Betrayal’, ‘Shadow’, ‘Songs for Murdered Sisters’, ‘Zombie’, ‘Invisible Man’, and ‘Blackberries’, to name a few.  I was quite struck by just how powerful and personal some of these verses were, although I have to confess that it was not until I read them for a second time that I felt their real force.  Of course, that is my shortcoming and not the author’s; you really cannot read poetry at the same pace or in the same way that your read fiction, which is something I had to remind myself of repeatedly.  Still, for both Atwood devotees and those new to her work, <i>Dearly</i> is a book that merits attention.

This short volume of poetry from one of our great living authors was a delightful balance of clear, powerful imagery and esoteric reference. The topics felt both personal and universal. It was well organized, and contained some lovely language. This is a must read for Margaret Atwood fans or poetry lovers.

Dearly is a collection of poems from acclaimed writer Margaret Atwood. The poems are beautiful and nuanced, simple but carefully crafted. It's perfect for fans of her other writing and for those who love modern poetry. 
Many thanks to Ecco Publications and NetGalley for the advance copy.

Ok so I feel like a dummy for not realizing that Margaret Atwood also writes poetry??? And it's amazing??????

Anyway, I don't know where I've been, but this collection is truly fantastic. It's got poems on everything from aging to love to global warming to, of course, zombies. Atwood's wording is so precise and thoughtful, something that definitely makes her speculative fiction writing very powerful, but is even more evident in her poetry. If you're a poetry lover or a fan of Atwood's fiction writing, you must read Dearly.

Thank you, NetGalley for providing me this lovely book of poetry by Margaret Atwood. Even though she routinely uses hundreds of thousands of words to tell stories, but she’s obviously capable of eliciting emotional responses with only a few choice words. This book will be published on 11/10/2020.

Younger readers may be surprised to find the Margaret Atwood, whom many know for The Handmaid's Tale and her speculative fiction trilogy starting with Oryx & Crake, began her writing career as a poet in 1961 with her collection Double Persephone. 

While some may be put off by the "poetry" designation, fear not, gentle reader, fear not. The Atwood readers know from her fiction is still there, shining through, although since poetry tends toward compact impressions, even more so. The Atwood that shines through the fiction - the irony and wicked wit, the bare-bones language that refuses to dress up and put on airs to make its point - she is there. 

Having lost her longtime partner, Graeme Gibson, in September 2019, this collection is infused with both his presence and, as he had had vascular dementia, his fading, and flickering absences. Their life together, however, is present as well, particularly their experiences as environmental conservation advocates and bird watchers.  Her close observation of  the natural world works it's way into her poetry -
 "Ears are superfluous:
What are they for,
those alien pink flaps?
Skull fungus."

Fear not, it's not all doom and gloom and vanishing wetlands. There are also sidesteps into the speculative fiction universe with aliens and vampires and, of course, zombies. A fantastic collection, by turns poignant, amusing, and wry, much like the author. Recommended.

Having read some of Atwood's fiction, it was no surprise that her poetry is excellent. Well-written, thoughtful, and with allusions that really worked for me as a fan of horror, sci-fi, and fantasy, using images such as werewolves, sirens, robots, and more.

Don't you love it when you stumble upon a phrase that just jolts you? Or makes you say "Yes!"? Or imparts a scene that's as clear as a photograph? There are plenty of moments like that in this book of new poems by Margaret Atwood.

Dearly shows yet another reason this author is met with such acclaim, and she deserves it!!

My thanks to NetGalley and Ecco for allowing me to read a review copy of this book. Publication is set for 11/10/2020. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Though I have read Margaret Atwood before, I had never had the opportunity to read her poetry. NetGalley was kind enough to send "Dearly" to me and I was very excited to read it! I found much of her poetry simply lovely. There were some poems that I did not particularly care for, but then there were others so moving that I found myself reading lines several times aloud. There is a little something for everyone here, but there will also be some poems that some may wish to pass over. All in all, it's worth reading!