Cathrine Owen's poetry collection delves into the aftermath of personal loss and the transition to a new chapter in her life within a historic home named "Delilah." Through a diverse range of poetic styles, Owen beautifully portrays her relationship with the house and the journey of building a new sense of home. The melancholic tone deeply resonated with me, as it effectively captures the passage of time and the bittersweet emotions that accompany change. Overall, I found the collection cohesive, immersive, and ultimately satisfying.

Loved the cover, loved the concept, but this just didn't flow for me. Personal taste for sure, Catherine Owen is clearly very talented, but I just didn't connect to the structure / style, it just kept throwing me out of the house.

"Moving to Delilah" it´s such a beautiful collection of poems about this new house that it´s so much more than the house it self. It´s a reflexion about the people that lived there and left their marks; about the neighbors and how they affect the expirience of living; about COVID and how it isolated us and, in some aspects, made us know every inch of the place we call "home".
I loved this poems with my whole heart. They made me think, create and dream. And that´s what poetry should do.

I enjoyed this collection. There was some poems I related to and some that left me confused and puzzled. I found it to be about 50/50 split between connection with poems and coming across poems that felt like random thoughts put together. I don’t think there is anything wrong with those types of poems, sometimes I think they can add to a collection. However with this collection, I found that it was harder for me to find enjoyment within the collection.

Enjoyed the concept of this book, but the poems read like an inside joke that I was on the outside of. A lot of the details included felt like they were important to the poet but unimportant to the poems. I’m curious to see the poet’s other work (I was not familiar with her) to see if perhaps this was just a product of the material being so close to her. I was interested in the poems that dig into the past — historical elements that influenced her house and town — but overall felt the poems weren’t really doing anything with that information, it was purely there for expository purposes.

This was my first book by this author/ poet.

Overall I really liked the mood. I was melancholic and to me poetry that is melancholic really gets me. It was cohesive to read through and understand the passing of time. The healing and the new love for this new place. Some poems I liked more that others, but that is to be expected. I would love to read a collection of short essays or stories from this author.

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read and review this poetry book which starts off being about the cost of living/housing crisis in Canada.

Honestly, while this has some potential; it was boring and did not suit me.

Thanks netgalley and freehand books for letting me review these arcs.

This collection of poetry is written after owens loses a partner and moves from british columbia to edmonton into a historic house, and makes it her home.

The poems are inargueably beautiful, and i like how they evolved like a relationship- the first flush of feeling to the comfort and stabiltu, and reflected the times they were written as owens moves through her grief and into a new love and into the world i.e. neighborhood.

What a lovely way to start national poetry month!

I was pretty indifferent about this poetry selection. I appreciate how the writing took me through an entire theme and period of time in the author’s life. It felt incredibly cohesive, which doesn’t always happen with a selection of poetry. However, I do think the author fell into a trap of many of the selections being way too similar to other selections included in this book. It all ended up feeling very, very repetitive, and by the half way point, lost a large amount of my interest. The last stretch did gain back some of my interest when the pieces began to change in subject matter. But again, those began to feel very similar to each other as well. I do not want to stray away from noting that it all felt very well written and a handful of lines did end up sticking with me. I also appreciated how free the formatting of the writing appeared on page.

Verse poetry that is too literal and lacks any stylistic flair. I personally think every book the authors job is to get me interested in something I absolutely do not care about that is what determines if a book is good or not to me.
this is probably one of the most boring books I’ve ever read I had no interest in it. The premise itself is very boring, however, it can be made very interesting with good writing interesting wordplay, beautiful lyrical verse choices, or a million other creative things and there’s none of that here. It’s very literal poems about moving in the house there isn’t any emotional aspect to the book. It’s not that great.

“Is this much nostalgia strange in a world bent on erasure, elision?”

This was quite the wholesome afternoon read. Moving to Delilah dissects the notion of home, retracing the author’s journey with her home, Delilah. This felt like part memoir, part poetry. Quite enjoyed this.

I went into Moving to Deliah thinking it was poetry. I want to caveat that I am not someone who is very rigid when it comes to reading poetry however; I felt like this book was more like essays than it was poetry. I did enjoy some of them but towards the end I did start to feel like I was skimming and trying to finish the book instead of savoring it which is my normal way of reading poetry.

Catherine Owen's latest collection, "Moving to Delilah," showcases her exceptional command of form, imagery, and metaphor, as expected from such a seasoned poet. Divided into distinct sections such as "Prologues," "The House," "The Garden," and "The Neighbourhood," the tome unfolds like a tender love letter to her newfound home. Throughout the collection, Owen's tone is deeply intimate, inviting readers into her most personal moments. Despite my unfamiliarity with the locales she describes, Owen's vivid descriptions breathe life into every location and shared experience, transporting readers as if they were intimately acquainted with each setting. Her profound connections to the people she encounters are palpable, particularly evident in poems like "Mona's Pub, 118th Avenue," where she transforms her local haunt into a sanctuary where "the poison becomes the balm." Additionally, Owen's exploration of archives and historical headlines adds a captivating layer of depth to the collection, offering readers a glimpse into the rich tapestry of the city's past. While the garden section may verge on repetitive at times, one must consider Owen's novice status as a gardener, which lends an understandable charm to her descriptions. I found myself yearning for more poems centered around the house itself, yet the collection as a whole remains a compelling read. One notable aspect of "Moving to Delilah" is Owen's seemingly more relaxed voice, a departure from her previous works. While this shift may not align with my personal preferences, it undoubtedly broadens the appeal of the collection, making it accessible to a wider audience. Overall, "Moving to Delilah" stands as a testament to Owen's prowess as a poet and is a worthy addition to her oeuvre. Its eloquent verse and heartfelt reflections are sure to resonate with readers, making it a must-read for poetry enthusiasts and newcomers alike.

The synopsis really interested me, but the poetry itself left me wanting more. I haven't read a poetry collection with a focus on moving countries and making a new home there, so it was a cool theme for a book. Like many collections, I enjoyed some poems more than others, but it stayed on theme most of the way through. I like that the author led you on a journey during her big move.

Employing an impressive variety of poetic formats and genres, Cathrine Owen romanticizes her relationship with her new house “Delilah” and the process of creating home. Serving as a memoir for both the author and the structure itself, I was compelled to foster a certain fondness for my house and gratitude for my own home’s history. Thank you to the author and NetGalley.

I was so looking forward to this book. I love old houses and how they either are or become a part of those lives that they intersect. I am sorry to say that the story of this house and its finder lost me at the beginning. I could not connect with house, the present or the past, nor the author's feelings. Perhaps if it was written in a diifferent way, as I found the poetry and haiku and prose not telling a story, but just throwing out bits and pieces. I thank NetGalley and Freehand Books for the advance read.

As cities get more and more crowded and rents move ever higher, sometimes there's only one thing to do—evacuate to more affordable areas. That's just what Owens did: dreaming of a place of her own, she left Vancouver for Edmonton, into a century-old saltbox house. "It surely would not, not now, or ever, let you down. It surely would not, not now (or never?) let you down." (loc. 72*)

I appreciate (and understand) poetry best when it is rooted in the concrete, and in many ways "Moving to Delilah" is the epitome of that—a hunt for roots, for permanence, for a foundation.

"Inside an empty cupboard we found the permit to build, its back scarred with tack marks, front bearing the contractor's name and a list of tasks to be checked off. None were. Or else the yellowed progression of time had swallowed the ticks that claimed the foundation (yes) had been finished or the frame (yes), the base (yes). We can see the evidence, the proof it was, yet the record is gone.

How much we rely
On the writing in the sand
Near a hungry sea." (loc. 170)

A mix of prose poetry and straight verse, "Moving to Delilah" chronicles those first years of home ownership and putting down roots, sometimes literally (gardening) and sometimes less so (digging into the history of the house and the land). It's an understated story—no big dramas, focused on rootedness rather than restlessness and permanence of place rather than more ephemeral emotions. A satisfying read.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.

*Quotes are from an ARC and may not be final.