The Hill We Climb

DNF @ page 25

When the book blurb mentioned “harnessing the collective grief of a global pandemic,” I assumed it would just be a mixture of melancholy and hopefulness. Unfortunately, these poems are far more blunt and overbearing with their ties to the pandemic. That is very much not something I want to dwell on at length, especially through poems which use the same wordplay and fancy spacing tricks as emo kids on deviantART in the late 2000s and attention-starved tumblr users in the 2010s. Been there, read that, wrote some of my own, moved on with my life. Not interested in going back.

Such a beautiful book of poetry. Amanda has perfectly captured the nuances of what we have been facing these past years and I believe that this volume will be something people study one hundred years from now when they are learning about our time. I really enjoyed reading it.

Two of my favorite excerpts from this collection:

“It's said that ignorance in bliss.
Ignorance is this: a vine that
sneaks up a tree, killing not by
poison, but by blocking out its
light.”

“Strength is separate from survival.
What endures isn't always what escapes
& what is withered can still withstand.”