I enjoyed a few of the poems in this book. Several, had beautiful prose and imagery with a compassion and ethos that is hard to capture. However, many of the poems felt trite and a little performative. I felt like I was reading political musings of a man just starting to work through the disillusionment of his faith in our country's systems with little to no attempt and reworking his initial thoughts into a poem. I could see a lot of potential in what he was trying to say but left feeling frustrated by the lack of polish and naivete those particular pieces.

Overall, it was a quick and pleasant read.

I picked up The Other Love: Poems by Henri Cole hoping to be moved. I read poems occasionally, and what usually draws me in is the emotional pull — that feeling when a line hits you right in the heart. Unfortunately, this collection didn’t quite do that for me.

Cole’s work is described as “an attitude more than emotion,” and I think that’s where we didn’t connect. The poems are carefully crafted and thoughtful, but they felt distant to me, like the words were there, but they didn’t stir anything. That’s not to say it’s a bad book, just that it didn’t resonate with me personally.

Poetry is such a personal experience, and I know this collection will speak deeply to others. But for me, it left me a bit disappointed. Still, I appreciate the craft and the themes of aging and time — they just didn’t land emotionally the way I hoped.

The human experience is so full of pain and happiness. I feel like as I was reading each poem I may not have experienced some of the events the author is describing, but I can feel the feelings felt in that moment in my bones

“The silverfish in our house were morbidly obese”
“Don’t be a herd of one”

However, I think about halfway through the second part and all of the third part there wasn’t as much emotion and I wasn’t drawn to the poems the same way I was drawn to the first part. I liked the mix of politics, home, and life.

I received this as an eARC from Net Galley

I have a problem with modern authors using words like "fart" and "poop" and gross, childish words in their poems as a new age type of poetry theme. It makes everything they write seem less definite, like they aren't even really trying. New age poetry can be beautiful and can be done well, but when an author uses language like this, it downgrades the entire collection.

I also couldn't find any emotion in these poems. They all lacked something that made them spark and come alive. Maybe I was in the wrong headspace because of the language, but I couldn't feel anything while reading.

I did not enjoy this much at all.

Thank you Netgalley, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and Henri Cole for sending me this advanced review copy for free. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I really enjoyed this one. It's a good mix of subjects from political, social, and world events, to what goes on in every day life. The little bits of sarcasm here and there were a lot of fun. These poems are not happy and upbeat, but the feelings are so real because of it. Everyday life isn't always great, and sometimes bad things happen. You still have to go on with your day anyway.