Swimming Lessons: Poems

When you told meI had won your heart,I didn???t expect that Iwould have to share yourbody with anyone else.You were mineand yetyou were everyone else???s.

The above poem has an image preceding it: a line drawing of a red-ink man between two black-ink women, in what almost looks like a threesome pose. They're intimately but not lewdly touching and standing rather than laying. Another poem comes with a line drawing of a black-ink, feminine face with red-ink tears brimming from the eyes. Both speak of relationships gone awry, love turned to pain. Both are at risk of cutting someone with all those jagged edges.

Are they genuine emotions? The world will never know, because the preface suggests that some of the poems are based on personal experiences and others on fabrications. For a book which reads so much like a personal journal instead of an actual collection of any literary merit, that almost makes it feel like a lie rather than a work of fiction. Then again, maybe fiction would be better because some of these are... not flattering.

Let's just say that it's impossible to separate all these tales of falling deeply in love and being heartbroken from the most publicized relationship of Lili Reinhart's. In several poems, she mentions her (ex?) lover smoking - a habit far less common in current society yet fairly well known to be something that certain celebrity beau does. One line drawing even slightly resembles him and precedes a poem where she complains about how the mystery lover isn't as heartbroken as she is. That makes this really awkward, not just because I want no part of stupid celebrity dating drama but because the poems themselves are so melodramatic and filled with bitter entitlement.

You said so yourself,I???m more invested than you are.You???re not experiencing thisrejection.[...]And that???s what hurts the most.Feeling this alone.Mutual heartbreak would be theonly comforting option,but you can???t seem to spare me that.

unimpressive and unpoetic

this

This one just ain't it.

3.5 stars

I'd like to write “I want my words to collect dust” on my soul forever. Lovely collection of poems.