Review: Like One: Poems for Boston

Like One: Poems for Boston by Deborah Finkelstein
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm not a big fan of poetry, which is why I find it amusing that two of my big picks for this month have a strong poetry component (the other being Ensler's book). Like One: Poems for Boston is a great anthology filled with contemporary and classic poets (e.g. Walt Whitman and Robert Frost) that celebrates togetherness. Editor, Deborah Finkelstein was inspired to edit this anthology in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings--not to put the focus on the tragedy, but to capture the unity that emerged in its aftermath. The collection's proceeds go to help victims of the bombing.

Overall, I surprisingly liked this collection. That's not because I expected less from it but mostly because I'm not usually as captured by poetry as other forms of writing. I appreciate it, but am just not driven to read it. However, Finkelstein not only selected a great and accessible collection of poems, she also did a great job of organizing the poems as they often flow from one to another in a way that's hard to fully explain but feels natural. As one reads through the poems, it's easy to understand why the order fit; each one seems in part born of the previous poem and preparing to birth the next. In that, there is a harmony to this collection that beautifully captures the purpose in celebrating the unity of Bostonians.

View all my reviews

---

Did you enjoy this read? Let me know your thoughts down below or feel free to browse around and check out some of my other posts!. You might also want to keep up to date with my blog by signing up for them via email.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.