When the blood in your body is
weary to flow,
when your bones are heavy though
hollow
if you have made it past thirty
celebrate
and if you haven't yet,
rejoice. Know that there is a time
coming in your life when dirt settles
and the patterns form a picture.

(From the poem Mental Health).

Wow. This collection is a battering, an embrace, a blow, a kiss, a laugh, a cry, a mourning and a celebration. I had read a handful of these poems before when I attended a reading a few years ago (Yrsa Daley-Ward is a hell of a performer and truly lovely) but not all the way through, until now. I'm kicking myself for not doing so sooner because this is now one of my favourite poetry collections and my heart is swollen with feelings.

Each poem feels like it comes from a raw, carnal place - dug up from the past, captured in the moment - and it's the kind of poetry that speaks directly to the reader. Some poetry you really have to read between the lines, there's veils to peek through and hidden messages, and while I love poems like that, there's also something so refreshing about poems that hand themselves over to you, still hot from the author's heart. That's what these poems feel like to me.

My Favourite Poems:
bone
when it is but it ain't
artichokes
heat
a test - things our bodies have been
sthandwa sami (my beloved, isiZulu)
she puts cinnamon on tomatoes
it is what it is
panacea
mental health
nose
why you love her and what to do
body
not the end of the world, but almost
some kind of man
mum
poetry
another thing that happened