I Hope This Finds You Well

With few exceptions, I am a firm believer that one should never read the comments section. This collection of erasure poetry was essentially being forced to read the comments so that you could see what Baer was doing with the erasure. Sure, some of the poems resonated, but in general her work is just not for me. I don't need things to be happy all the time, but I do need to maintain my sanity as a woman in this, The Year of Our Lord 2023, and many of the original comment content is stuff I try to avoid every day. More of the poetry in this slim collection made me feel worse about humanity instead of better, even with the attempted tongue-in-cheek response. YMMV.

this is a collection of found poetry, or blackout poetry. essentially kate baer has taken some of the most nasty, self-centered, and close-minded comments directed at her over the past few years and turned them into beauty.

some of these poems genuinely hit a piece of my heart inside me. some of them really made me feel seen.

this is first and foremost a feminist-centered book of poems but it touches on all aspects of being a good human: blm, anti-capitalism, anti-blind-patriotism, and body neutrality.

i would 100% recommend this book to anyone and everyone! especially considering it's a little under 100 pages so it's a quick read. i'll leave you with a poem that hit me:

“to love yourself is to love the world and find a place to live in it.”

I didn't know what to expect. This gave me whiplash.