The Pocketbook of Sunshine and Rain

The Pocketbook of Sunshine and Rain by Nenia Campbell

4.5 stars

I'm new to poetry. The only poetry I've really read before this year was Edgar Allen Poe and Frost, but this year I tried Milk and Honey. I liked Milk and Honey, but something about it felt forced and fake in certain areas. My biggest problem with the poetry was just a couple of random words strewn together to create a meaningless sentence. This on the other hand was a poetry collection that really spoke to me. I've been wanting to get into poetry, but never really know where to start. I'm a friend of Nenia's and was excited to check out her poetry collection since I've known her on GR for so long and remember when she started working on the collection.


These poems are beautiful. There are a few hit or miss ones, but the majority were gorgeous and had me shaking my head in agreement or saying, "THIS!!" while reading. I don't really know what else to say about a poetry collection other than that this is definitely one that you should check out. I'll leave a couple of my favorite poems down below and hopefully that will convince you to buy this because I think it's absolutely brilliant and a lot of these poems touched my heart.


Whimsical Writing Scale: 4.5

This is my favorite:
we buried the corpses of our arguments
beneath the dining room table
picked over the bones, emergent,
and threw them at each other
a knuckle bone here
a rib there
no prayers were said
no flowers laid
only a hailstorm of finger bones
to lard our dinner conversation
picking the shards out of our teeth
we spit them at each other
always hoping someone would choke

Another great one:
a path of stars
growing, spiraling
swirling in the darkness
not everyone sees a path of stars
spinning above them
feels the light pouring down
drowning the world
a path of stars like whirlpools
conceived by separate suns
a starry night

I hope I convinced you to pick this collection up. I'm not a poetry buff, but I do know emotions and Nenia's emotions were spoken in this collection beautifully. All empathetic souls should pick up a copy.


Cover Thoughts: It's adorable and it really fits the tone of the collection.

Are you interested in picking this collection up? What's some of your favorite poetry books? Let me know down below in the comments.