“I am not silly prey.
Tomorrow I will swim from the Pacific Ocean
Back to the Hudson River
I will build a home
I will build a home with a fence
One hundred leagues under the sea
Under the algae,
you will never find me.” – 4/5 stars!

Smith’s debut collection consists of 80 poems and several short stories. It is a meditation on miscommunication, childhood, Northeastern vs. Southern American culture, family, nature vs. technology, and the imagination of the introvert.

“From sonnets to somnambulance, from algae to oxytocin, from manatees to Manhattan, Stirling Smith rides the riptides of memory’s fictions and frictions in this prolific debut. Butterfly Bruises is a gem mine of poems and stories that write through grief and growing up, personal and planetary survival, with words rugged and glistening like seashell shards…” -Poetry Critic and Scholar, Professor Robert Dewhurst, PhD.

This was probably one of the best poem/short stories collections I have ever received in the mail.
There were a lot of amazing things about this book, but two things stood out to me the most. First, the amount of detail and thought the author put into the book. It’s very clear to me that every element of this book has its purpose and is there for a reason. To me it showed me the author spent a lot of time and energy planning this collection to be perfect…. which I appreciate as a reader.
The second thing that made this collection so good is the analogies/metaphors made using animals and nature. All the analogies and metaphors used were very creative and well accomplished given the presented context. Every single poem captured the beautiful essence of nature.
There were so many poems in this collection that spoke to my soul! Some of my favorites were: “An Everlasting Cut”, “Sorority Blues”, “Ladybug”, “Silver Fish”, “In Time” and “When I Chew On My Thoughts”. I may not be an expert when it comes to poetry, but I really like to read poems that I can identify with, and this is what is so great about this collection. I was completely absorbed in the poems and stories, and I saw my reflection in a lot of them!
For a debut collection, I’m pleasantly surprised with the final result. The author did an amazing job. Highly recommend it!

…And can we take a minute to appreciate the beautiful cover of this book? It’s so stunning!

xoxo,