I felt these poems right into my heart! They're alive, they say so many things and you can resonate on a *spiritual* level with them!

This poetry collection is just a slow ride about love, lost and asking. It's really sad that this collection didn't work that much. Instead, these poems are like flowers who aren't ready to bloom yet. But I still enjoy it though, the following are some of the poems that silently waves at me in a while;

* Censorship
* Books
* The Veil
* Revenge
* Covetous
* The Reaper
* Rain
* A Little
* Sin

Thank you NetGalley and Butterdragons Publishing for the chance to read and review Spirit.

While I can see that Helle Gade has won some awards, for best poetry collection (for another book) I feel like this collection could have been worked on. I didn't like the introductory poem, and the rest of the others were all over the place.

The entire poetry book speaks of great sorrow yet things you can feel deep into your soul. I feel that this is a great read for those that are great thinkers, those that always wonder about things but yet also those that ask question about everything.
This is what I have gathered from it. This book literally speaks volumes of the spirit, (no pun intended on its title). It speaks about its ups and downs, its feelings on life, grief, relationships, the idea of faith, you name it, this author has most likely mentioned it in a very poetic way.
This book really made me think about all the things that I may take for granted and then it switched to something that was lighter and geared the me towards the greatness of nature and I appreciated it, more as a break from the sorrow and darkness that is presented at times.
I have personally, never read anything of this caliber but I hope that the author continues to speak from their heart because I feel that this is what the author was doing while writing this book. It was a great book to read and also really fast if one is not reading into it too much. But for those with questions, I think the poems themselves will become topics of great and insightful conversations.
However it does read very darkly and therefore I would only recommend the book to late teens and adults. Also, I had an idea to mind while reading this: perhaps the author could have spaced out the poems in their own categories. Such as "Feelings on Nature," "On Death," "Grief for Me," or something like that. It gets me prepared for what I am getting into and what I am about to read.

Helle Gade lives in Denmark. She is a book blogger, poet, photographer, nocturnal creature, avid reader and chocolate addict. She has been writing poetry since 2011 and published four poetry collections since then. She has been fortunate to work with a bunch of brilliant authors and photographers on The Mind's Eye series. Her book Nocturnal Embers won the Best Poetry Collection with eFestival of Words. Her newest collection is Spirit, a series of dark and painful poems about feeling lost.
Gade’s poetry taps into some dark themes, striking back at those who would threaten or oppress their speaker. For example, the poem “Sin” reads
I am not a sin that
You can contain within
I am out there
For all to see
A painful reminder
Of things best forgotten
While there is a sense of pain in the alienation experienced in these poems, there’s a resilience, as well. Gade’s speakers tend to lash out with their words and celebrate their uniqueness.
Gade also taps into some darker horror imagery in her poems to drive forward the painful feelings. For example, the poem “Child of the Abyss” begins
Demons in the flames
Licking my heart
With fiery tongues
Demanding my surrender
Images like these use various horror tropes to create a tone for the reader that’s at once rebellious and painful, tying into the themes of Gade’s other poems.
Clearly, as exampled above, Gade writes from an enthusiastic emotional point, but her craft leaves a lot to be desired. The poems in this collection struggle with basic craft issues and presentation. They are all formatted with center justification and capital letters beginning each line, which is an outdated format that most poets and editors eschew. The poems themselves suffer from vague and abstract images or cliches, and do very little that’s unique or innovative with the forms.
Overall, Spirit by Helle Gade is one of those collections that only enthusiasts will want to pursue. Fans of horror might like some of the images or tropes, but horror poetry fans will be left wanting.

The more I read Helle Gade's books, the more I fall for her "ramblings". Her poetry is so beautiful you will get emotional. Her poetry is different fro m other poetry. She actually makes you feel the emotion, like it's actually happening to you. I cannot get enough of her poetry books. I have read 3 so far and loving more every time I read her poetry. Beautiful poetry from a very beautiful soul!!

I received a free copy of the book and is voluntarily writing a review

This was probably one of the worst Poetry books I've ever read. The poems were all over the place and had no direction. The only thing that was apparent about this book is that her dog died, which is supposed to be where the loss emotion was supposed to come in but it didn't.

This poetry collection is about loss, love, feeling lost, trying to get out of painful patterns, and a lot more. I always struggle to describe poetry books but I can tell you this one is beautiful. It's about pain but it's also about hope, and it really inspired me in many ways. So many of the poems resonated with me strongly, and I could vividly see myself in the words, which made for an intense but amazing reading experience. The writing style is lovely as well; the author uses a lot of metaphors, which I always love in poems. If you'd like to read a poetry collection about the themes I mentioned above, and you're craving something quick to read but also impactful and inspiring, you should pick this up when it comes out! I definitely recommend it for any and all fans of poetry.