My Favourite Poetry Book
Hey guys!
My book Bitter-Sweet will be released NEXT week and I can’t believe it! To think that this little piece of my heart will soon be out in the world is unreal!
Until the release, I thought I’d tell you a little bit about my favourite poetry book at the moment (and probably forever).
I have read many (mainly modern) poetry books in the past two years and the one book that really stuck with me was Honeybee by Trista Mateer.
Trista is a young poet who got famous for her words on Tumblr. Honeybee was her first poetry book which she self-published in 2014 (Honeybee's 2nd edition got published in March 2018 by Central Avenue Publishing). Her second book The Dogs I Have Kissed won the Goodreads Choice Award in 2015.
Since then, Trista has written more books: Small Ghost, [redacted], Before The First Kiss and Instead of Writing Our Breakup Poem. She also contributed short fiction to the anthology [Dis]Connected: Poems & Stories of Connection and Otherwise which will be published in a few months.
The concepts of each of her poetry books are very unique and creative. Before The First Kiss for example is a collaboration with her ex lover and [redacted] is a collection of everything Trista wrote in one month.
Now let me tell you a bit more about my favourite book by Trista.
Honeybee is a raw collection of poetry about distance, about airports and planes, packing up and leaving, about the long and vulnerable process of letting go. Although the poems in this book are very personal, they are also relatable and they have stirred up many emotions inside of me, because I can obviously relate to the whole distance thing, since I’m living in two countries and I have had to learn how to let go of many things and people in the past years.
I have come back to read Honeybee again and again and every time I ended up ugly crying because I can relate to the little poetic stories within the pages – even if it’s just a single line in one of the poems that hits home.
Trista Mateer's poetry is very messy and I absolutely love that. She doesn’t shy away from the reality of things, she doesn’t make everything sound perfect because that’s not how life is.
Instead of trying to explain Trista's style of writing, I'll just let her words speak for themselves.
This is page 11 of Honeybee (1st edition) by Trista Mateer:
HERE IS THE CAREFUL, QUIET WAY OF LOVING:
you do not ask her when she is leaving town again;
not because you do not feel this pulsing ache to know,
but because you do not want
to make her say it
you do not ask her to stay;
her cheeks bloom like roses,
but your garden has been empty
for a long time now
and it is not her job to fill it
you never say goodbye;
permanence is a dreadful thing
and so instead, you say “I’ll be seeing you”
and you make it sound like a damn promise,
something you will hold close and not leave scattered
at the foot of some dark-eyed stranger’s bed
you tell her that you love her
and you keep it in the simplest terms;
leave out all the poetic nonsense
because you’re not trying to woo her –
you’re just trying to show her something warm and light,
something honest in the midst of all the bullshit
all the one-liners
all the people who never stayed
and you never ever make promises
that you don’t intend to keep
If this poem caught your attention and you want to check out Trista’s work, take a look at her website and don't forget to follow her on Instagram. If you want to buy Honeybee, click here.
If you’re interested in the other books that I enjoy reading, let me know and I might start doing more blog posts like this.
Next week will be a busy week here on my blog, but also on my Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages – there are a lot of things planned for the Launch Week of Bitter-Sweet, so stay tuned!
As always, take care and don’t forget your Sweetness!
Yours, Theresa xxx
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