Poetry, for me, comes down to a marriage of imagery and emotion. I need both to be present, within a structure that creates rhythm. While Liles’s ideas brim with creativity, his approach is too detached — despite clearly having a lot of love for our planet in his daily life, Liles does not allow his tenderness to seep into his poetry; only once does he employ a more sentimental tone, in Woodlouse, and it works so excellently I am all the sadder he did not go that way for his other poems. Nature poetry is my soft spot, and though I don’t always find the form to be well thought out, I always value the emotional investment of the poets: think Mary Oliver, her love almost beats like a heart of its own through her poetry. That’s what I really wanted from this collection too. I’m very sorry to be writing a negative review, especially because Liles seems like a sweet person. But I also know there are many readers who appreciate contemporary poetry way more than I do, and I believe they’ll find Bees, and After more delightful than I did.

DNF at 23%
Confusing is an understatement. I have no idea what the poems were about. They were either too experimental or too unedited. Either way, I couldn't even understand what the author was trying to say.

Sounded like my cup of tea; science crosses poetry.
Perhaps partially because I had written a couple of similarly themed poems, I expected to see longer, more detailed or differently-themed poems.

I don’t know why these poetry talking about... chemical elements? I was expecting something more beautiful than this. But I guess most of the beauty was already taken by the cover.

I really enjoyed Bees, and After. As someone with a science background and a love for all things biological, the use of scientific language throughout the collection really excited me. Many of the poems feel like a blend of poetic expression and educational insight—especially those with added factual notes, which made it feel like a two-for-one experience: learning something new while enjoying the beauty of the writing.

I also appreciated the intentional use of white space and scattered formatting. The spacing forces you to slow down and absorb each word, creating a rhythm that feels both thoughtful and fluid.

If I had one critique, it would be the occasional overuse of certain words or phrases, which started to feel a bit repetitive across the collection.

Bees, and After is a poignant reminder that nature and animalism extend to humans. We are part of the Earth’s ecosystem and survive on its offerings, as is made evident in ‘Without Which’. The direct addressing of nature/earth as “you” in ‘Without Which’ rekindles the reader’s intimacy with the planet. That “you lend honey bees/kindred ignitions/into the blue/unforgiving” serves as a reminder that without the gentle generosity of nature, we would not endure on this planet. For that we owe the planet gentleness and kindness too. After all, “this is how we survive”: by the hand of nature that provides all we need.

In these poems, human kind is reduced, or perhaps elevated, to the level of our animal counterpoints. In ‘The Steady State’, “what bleeds/our honey alights/our hearts”, making a beehive of the human heart. And I think that is something beautiful, to turn the beating of a heart, which implies a purely self-sustaining action into a cooperative act. The creation of honey comes from the effort of many bees collecting pollen from the outside world and bringing it back to the hive. In drawing the necessary parallels in this metaphor, the sustaining of the heart, of our humanity, is not an isolated act, but something that is made possible by our interactions with the world around us. We are sustained by that which we love and draw into our heart, creating our own sweetness.

While there were some metaphors that really struck a chord with me, I did feel slightly jarred by the absence of an obvious cadence to the poetry and some of the word-choices. That being said, the latter were clearly intentionally made and speak to the intersection of science and nature, so I do understand why the poet made these decisions, and this is really more a matter of personal taste than a comment on the poet’s capabilities as an author.

Overall, these poems oddly made me feel like I was back in a biology classroom, but in the best way possible. There were definitely standout lines and individual poems, however, I think my capacity to emotionally connect with the poems was thwarted by some of the scientific language. It created a degree of separation from the poems that seemed to contradict the intention of the poems to break down barriers between humans and nature. I would absolutely be intrigued by the author’s future works, given his deftness in drawing parallels between nature and human experience.

Poetry meets science in this collection that reflects on our fragile world and life itself. I found it very interesting to have poetry about chemistry and the formation of life, and I appreciated the explanations and additional notes for those of us who are not savvy in these areas. While a lot of the science went over my head, I fully respect this concept of art meeting alchemy.

Thank you to Yale University Press and NetGalley for this book for review.

I found Liles to be both strange and sharp. Reading these made me feel like I was back in my bio classes at Madison. There were standout lines, and standout individual poems, but not all of them sparked a strong feeling for me.

I normally prefer not to rate poetry collections unless I have particularly strong opinions either way. My feelings here were mixed.

Thank you to Yale University Press for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley.

Here's my honest take on it.

This book of poetry was truly disappointing read for a book of poetry. Despite my anticipation, I couldn't get into it. I found myself skimming through most of the poems, hoping for a spark of interest. Instead, I found myself getting bored. Overall, I didn't enjoy the book.

What an original, creative collection of poetry. I love how the writer works so playfully with language, as if they were having great fun with wordplay and intertwining art with science. I live poems that try to pierce the world of science, revealing the beauty beneath the Latin and the formulae. I only wish there was more of the poet in this collection: their first person perspective, their relationship to the subjects, their emotions. Often poets put too much of themselves in the narrative, and rarely, as is the case here, maybe not enough. Overall, this is a creative and unique collection, very enjoyable.