Ratings10
Average rating3.6
An Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller A Goop Book Club Pick "If you want your breath to catch and your heart to stop, turn to Kate Baer."--Joanna Goddard, Cup of Jo A stunning and honest debut poetry collection about the beauty and hardships of being a woman in the world today, and the many roles we play - mother, partner, and friend. “When life throws you a bag of sorrow, hold out your hands/Little by little, mountains are climbed.” So ends Kate Baer’s remarkable poem “Things My Girlfriends Teach Me.” In “Nothing Tastes as Good as Skinny Feels” she challenges her reader to consider their grandmother’s cake, the taste of the sea, the cool swill of freedom. In her poem “Deliverance” about her son’s birth she writes “What is the word for when the light leaves the body?/What is the word for when it/at last, returns?” Through poems that are as unforgettably beautiful as they are accessible, Kate Bear proves herself to truly be an exemplary voice in modern poetry. Her words make women feel seen in their own bodies, in their own marriages, and in their own lives. Her poems are those you share with your mother, your daughter, your sister, and your friends.
Reviews with the most likes.
This collection of poems really brings to light all the small little slights of hands that we face everyday or the ways that other people see us and hurt us, our confidence and our happiness. Even for a guy there were some in here that really resonated with me, from weight to under appreciated moms of the world.
“what is your beauty secret? She answers: hot lemon water every morning. She does not answer: time.”
Really enjoyed Part I. I have her second collection and look forward to reading it.
“Sometimes I imagine what it'd be like to / show you I'm alive. The thrill of it. The sharp / inhale. The nerve exposed. The bone.”
Favorites:
First Love
Moon Song
Female Candidate
To Take Back a Life
Transfiguration
The Martian
For My Daughter on a Bad Day