Some of the poems in Alix Perry's collection Tomatoes Beverly flow beautifully, creating scenes in the mind's eye. Others are somewhat disjointed and difficult to follow. This may be intentional; poetry is art, interpreted differently by the creator and the reader. Perry opens with a sage reminder for their readers: "Things I should know by now:/ whether to take the news with/ a grain of salt or a spoonful of sugar;/ when to lie and when to brag;/ how to celebrate anything at all. [...] Breathe/ shallow to whisper, deeper/ to take blame./ Onerous is the task/
of feigned restraint."
"gravity is/ the weight of all the stories we don't know/ how to tell," Perry tells us. Their method of immersing themselves in music for each separate piece is a brilliant idea: by fully allowing themselves to be influences by what they hear, Perry creates unique pieces that retain their own identity while subtlety uniting the collection as a whole.

4.0

Thank you NetGalley for an eARC.

This collection had some really good pieces in it, and I loved how the poems were connected with music and you could see the influence. The author is a good writer and I enjoyed reading this.

My favourite poem from the collection was Don’t Swallow The Cap!

I really loved the premise of this collection and how it was executed. The idea of connecting the poem with the music was a really good idea, it was so much fun to explore how it influenced the poetry and how each poem somehow managed to mirror some aspect of the music. I actually listened to the artists as I went through the book and while I only picked one song for each poem, it was enough to really elevate the experience of reading. Even without the music, I think this collection contains very nice pieces. I especially like how each poem is different from the others, not only in the themes presented, but also in how it's formated.

A unique, compelling poetry collection. This poetry is grounded and accessible and I enjoyed the journey I was taken on throughout the collection!

I really enjoyed spending time with this volume, and anticipate going over it again (without an eye to review). There are moments that are funny, moments that are tragic, and, blessedly, several that are both. The individual poems, while discrete in tone and subject, drew from a compelling pallette of images, textures, densities, and sounds. The whole collection was cohesive and complimentary.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy of this book