We are made of all those who have built and broken us ( )

Man... I just don't get it. This guy is inspired by Whitman, Angelou, and Plath? There is nothing confessional or expansive about these poems. It's pretty surface level stuff. I won't knock short poems, or even simple poems. But it truly feels like there is no greater significance then what's advertised, and in a collection full of over a hundred short poems, half of them seem to be saying the exact same thing. It just seems to lack a level of artistic message.

I decided to read this because I want to consume a wide breadth of poetry, and Atticus is known as one of the most popular poets on social media. He's grown to fame by having digestible, easily sharable poems that fit nice on "aesthetic" graphics. He's anonymous (basically), and it makes sense why. His goal is to appeal to the casual reader by writing poems devoid of personal meaning. Instead of exposing his self to us, and asking us to draw a connection to him, he seeks no connection at all. It's all generic analogies about how a woman is a flower that must bloom before she can be plucked or something like that. Easily sharable, easily consumable, and apparently easily marketable. His page is well run- visually pleasing, much like the cover of this book. Beyond that, there isn't really any poetic merit here.

This isn't to say that his work is unethical or whatever; people enjoy it, and they should. But the purpose of this book seems to be to show your support for a social media page, not to actually bring together a meaningful collection of poems. My only real issue is that the guy pretends to be something he's not. It's a brand, so nameless and faceless it might as well be corporate. It works for what he's doing but it is so far removed from the personal rage of Maya Angelou that he shouldn't tie her name in with his work. ( )

This made me want to fall in love all over again. ( )

I enjoyed this. ( )

I did not find this one to be quite as strong as The Dark Between Stars, but again, a lovely yet powerful read. Atticus has a knack at choosing just the right words to help the reader visualize what he sees and feel what he feels. A lovely rainy day poetry book. ( )