Reading “It Wasn’t Easy to Reach You” felt like getting to know a new coworker — at the beginning, I was a little unsure, and maybe a little put-off by some of the unflattering details the speaker was revealing about himself. But as it went on, the picture became more clear, or at least got more depth. This is a person with a complicated relationship with relationships. He’s had many friends and many lovers and yet feels the need often to hide from them. I greatly enjoyed getting to know this person and hearing their stories throughout the collection. It’s presented and marketed as a collection about human collection, and initially, I thought it was more about a lack of connection because so many of the poems felt so lonely. That was less true in the second half, as I felt the poet reaching out and being more vulnerable.

This experience came to a head at the penultimate poem, “Broken Monitor,” which is the most bare self-portrait we see in the collection, and which contains some of my favorite language: “I have always had this eagerness to go and come back and go forever and never come back.” What a fantastic way to phrase something I so completely understand! The poem closes on a reference to the speaker’s lover, and then we trot on to the final poem, which is more humorous. I think that progression really encapsulates the collection as a whole: an exposed self-portrait, a comment to the lover, and a joke.

The poems are, by and large, fairly straightforward and narrative. That said, there are occasional bouts of lyricism, and these increase dramatically as we move through the collection. I highlighted lots of lovely lines, and I don’t want to give too many away, so to just pick one: from the title poem, “Forever / and ever like the permanent / bronze of the wind in a / pair of statue pants.”

All in all, this is a collection that ultimately builds strength as it moves. It paints a clear portrait with relatively little effort. I can’t quite give it 5 stars because I feel that the first half of the poems are much weaker. I wish there had been some editing of those poems or at least of the order in which they were presented.

"I do not miss him, but I miss the way he showed up."

Daniel Meltz collection was a standout for me, because I could see myself in the streets of New York dealing with the same heartbeat. I highlighted this book, reread, and spent hours with this on the train. I would pass this along to anyone that's looking for a collection that reminds you want longing after heartbreak looks like.

Overall, I think this collection was really great.

"Poetry is the best words in the best order"
Of you love poems and verses are your thing, you should surely check out 'It wasn't Easy to Reach You' by Daniel Meltz.
I was just going through the ARC and it was just wow! I mean a great poetry, if you can get it....
The poetries opens up the narrator's inner voice and the romance got me immediately...
It feels like listening to a normal light hearted but powerful story.
"I had 45 minutes so I went to my favorite shoelace store on East 59th where the shoelace boy’s always flirting with the hot cashier in her skin"

#ItWasntEasytoReachYou #NetGalley

Meltz’s work creates a nostalgia for a life you’ve never lived. It’s difficult to place this poetry collection — for my taste, the prose is a little dense as opposed to clipped and lyrical; however, it reminds me of the conversation oriented work of Terrance Hayes. My favourite poems were “Somewhere My Love” and “Nine Lives”. The writing style is mature, pondering, yet starkly conversational — it’s as though you’ve met the author over dinner and he’s told you these poems in a dim but warmly lit restaurant in New York while soft jazz plays in the background. I’m interested to read more of this author’s works in the future.

3.5 stars rounded up
while not necessarily my preferred style, this is a great collection of poetry by a clearly very talented writer. i love how many details are incorporated into them, you get a real sense of nostalgia when reading them. the poems feel very personal and honest, too, and there’s some truly beautiful phrases in them.
overall, i found some of them a little too wordy (i like poetry that’s a little more reduced), but that’s just a matter of personal preference. i definitely can’t say i connected with every single poem in the collection, but there were some that really touched me!

Touching, queer poems that are spectacular. Daniel Meltz combines easy-to-read verse with an interesting premise to all the poems that can truly make you feel with the author and the things he tells you. I always struggle with poetry that is too vague and niche for the common reader to understand. it feels like poets do not have the popular reader in mind. But if you read It Wasn't Easy to Reach You, Meltz guides you with these gripping stories in his poems. I can see myself picking up this book on my own time, and recommending it to my fellow reading friends. If you want a fascinating collection of poetry that makes you want to write essays on them (like it did for me), then pick this one up. A review on my TikTok will be up soon.

It Wasn’t Easy to Reach You is a solid collection of poems. There is a distinct rhythm and vocabulary throughout that ties together well. I liked the titling of most poems and found many of them humorous. The poet has a knack for vibrant phrases and strings them together in dynamic passages.

At times, I felt such passages ran on overwhelmingly and were a tad difficult to parse, such as in Furthermore[…] and Broken Monitor. In other poems, line breaks occasionally felt illogical to me, placed for aesthetics rather than meaning, though there were also many examples of well placed breaks that evoked clever wordplay and/or double entendre.

Overall, the first half or so was very strong and resonant for me, while the rest felt somewhat too uniform in style, repetitive in its tenor and pop cultural infusions. By the end, I felt that perhaps too much intentional meaning was injected into the later poems when the most evocative sentiments had already been expressed more fluidly in earlier poems. Still, I enjoyed the collection, and would read more works by the author.

My Favorites:
•Intrinsic Marimbas
•A Poem About Everything
•Variations on a Theme by Silver Convention
•Somewhere My Love
•Statistical High
•Poughkeepsie Keepsake
•Back When Hope Was Fun
•Three Stanzas about Haircuts and Our Relationship

3.5 stars rounded up.

While reading through this collection, I discovered that even though Daniel Meltz's style is not for me, there is a lot to admire about this very specifically placed, raw and visceral compilation of poetry. Some of the poems contain so many allusions and references that it almost feels like having to solve a puzzle or decode a secret message. Those who get it, will get it. I appreciate the challenge, but I'm ultimately not the right audience.

My favourites were the titular poem, "Uneasy Listening" and "Department of Tuesday".
Those who find themselves and their experiences reflected in this collection will feel very seen. I hope that this book finds its way to the right audience because the author has a talent for creating vivid images through words.


Thank you to Net Galley for providing a digital review copy of this poetry collection in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you, NetGalley for an advanced ARC of this book

This was a book of poetry that didn't quite resonate with me leaving me feeling unconnected from the message being conveyed by the author of their life and so much more, I have been reading this over a few days and came to the conclusion poetry like this is not for me.

I can see many people loving this and seeing more in-depth the internal meanings and structure of each poem, really taking something from this but unfortunately I am not one of those people... but I am happy I read it and tried something new