The Heart Is Improvisational

The Heart is Improvisational is anthology of poems that tackles anything about one of the vital human organs: the heart. Carol Lipszyc compiled poems from 53 renowned and influential poets such as Charles Bukowski, Eugenio de Andrade, Donald Justice, Erno Szep, and Rita Dove.

There are several poems in this poetry book that are more clinical in aspect, thus some medical terms are hard to understand, especially those who are not in the health care field. Although there are verses that cannot easily be comprehend, there are other poems in this compendium that addresses romance and familial in context.

Two of the outstanding poems I considered from this book are: Donor by Tamar Yoseloff; and Love Poem for Daughter by Marilyn Bowering.

Never has Pascal's saying "The heart has its own reasons which reasons knows not" been as vivid as it was in reading this collection of poems.
I'll have to say that the arrangement and presentation of poems was key in making me understand, love and connect with the poems. The poems begin with a more mechanical theme based on the functionality of the heart and progresses into the emotional and more psychological aspect with a bit f a connection to family and history in the middle. Eva Tihanyi's poem kind of marks the end and beginning of a new phase with It beats. It stops beating. as she gives what she titles The Unabridged History of the Heart.
I received this copy from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review and reading the poems made my evening!
If you love poetry, poets and poems, then how about reading poems centered around the one organ that we cannot shy away from?

This is a poetry collection featuring works from a wide variety of authors, all giving their unique perspectives on the most important part of human life—the heart. It was an extremely hit or miss collection for me, and I found it very hard to get into. In general, I tended to prefer the poems that focused on the less tangible, more emotional views of the heart, rather than the technical and clinical depictions. To me, the poems that spoke from essentially a medical perspective felt like reading a biology textbook—albeit a lyrical one—rather than a poetry collection.

All of the writers who contributed are extremely talented; all of the writing was strong and skilled. In my opinion, however, the flow of the writing—both individually and as a whole—was definitely broken up by the ones that focused more on fact than feeling. Of course, not all poetry needs to be abstract and romantic. The freedom to be whatever the writer wants it to be is one of the reasons why this is such a wonderful vehicle for creativity and expression. But for me, I think I just prefer poems that creatively expand on the emotional rather than the physical.

One of the most inspirational and heartfelt book I have ever read in my life! Thank you NetGalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.