Feb. 12, 2022 |
BloodFresh is a creative collection of honest poems and short stories that take risks in pulling itself out of disappointment, loss, and trauma only to operate in triumph by way of survival. This body of work speaks to the inner child, the everyday person, and future happy self told through Ebony Stewart also known as the Gully Princess. Welcome to BloodFresh. |
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BloodFresh is a collection of various forms of poems and short stories written by poet, artist, and author Ebony Stewart. Many thanks to the publisher Button Poetry for the Advance Reader Copy; I truly enjoyed it.
The poems are exquisitely-written with words that are so diverse, expressive, and brilliant, it felt refreshing to read. The range of writing is deep and smooth and curvy and just about takes you all over the place on a wild ride. I had special connections with 4 poems in particular, namely: 'The Blood', 'How We Forget', 'Battle Cry', and 'Mental Health Barz'.
The poem 'Battle Cry' exudes so much pride in Blackness, i.e. being Black. I'll quote my favorite part of the poem: "Be real Black for me / Come into being the / Blackest you / you've ever seen / Be so black, you purple / A royal blue." 👏👏
I also love how the author references lines from well-known authors and poets -- she quotes lines from Maya Angelou, Zora Neale Hurston, Buddy Wakefield, Friedrich Nietzsche, and many others. One of her poems also includes a line from a favorite classic poem of mine--Robert Frost's 'The Road Not Taken'.
In the Poem 'Mental Health Barz', the author's words resonate and cut deep; two lines especially stuck out for me:
- Check on your strong friends. Don't believe us. I swear we're just pretending
- If your path is more difficult, it's because your calling is higher
I won't launch into a literary analysis of the above lines or else I would ruin it for readers, but I'm really glad I came across this book of poetry. If you enjoy poetry and the play on words, I'm certain you'll thoroughly enjoy this one like I did!
BloodFresh was published on February 15, 2022.
MY RATING: 4/5
GENRE & THEMES: Poetry, race, racism, social justice, mental health, life lessons, love
MATURITY RATING: 14+
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ReplyDeleteThis sounds like an awesome read!
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