An easy companion to pick up when you need a piece of comfort. Would make a great gift for anyone feeling sadness, grief, or just needs a little pick me up

** The editor and NetGalley provided a copy of How to Love The World for an honest review **

I really loved this poetry collection! It's like a hug - we all need something now. Reflection and writing prompts are what distinguish anthology from others. I was also particularly happy to include a few lesser-known poets whose work I am looking forward to following.

2,5/5

Some of the poems were absolutely beautiful. Sadly, there were to many poems about children and parents. Not being a parent, and not wanting to have children, I didn't got attached or moved by most of these poems, so sadly I can't say that I liked this book.

However, some of these poems were absolutely beautiful, and I think that parents would love this book, because they would be able to identify in each one of these poems.

This is a beautiful poetry collection. At first, I thought this would be a book with sappy love poetry. But this collection has a deeper message – how do you find joy in this world? This poetry collection looks at the small moments of joy, of being present, of happiness in these dark times. The collection includes poems from many well-known poets such as Amanda Gorman, Ross Gay, and Joy Harjo.

Here is an excerpt from one of my favorite poems, “The Word,” by Tony Hoagland.
Down near the bottom
of the crossed-out list
of things you have to do today,
between “green thread”
and “broccoli” you find
that you have penciled “sunlight.”
Resting on the page, the word is
beautiful. It touches you
as if you had a friend
and sunlight were a present.

I still consider myself a beginner when it comes to reading poetry. I found this collection to be very approachable to newbies like me. The end of each chapter has a short discussion about the poems and a writing prompt for you to reflect on the poems. There are also discussion questions for many of the poems. I loved that some of the poems included COVID as elements in their poems which makes them feel so relatable.

I would recommend this book for anyone who needs help finding joy in the darkness. And isn’t that all of us? If you’re new to poetry, this collection is relatable and approachable.

ARC provided to me by Storey Publishing, in exchange for an honest review.

This is an enjoyable book of contemporary poetry, with plenty of timely poems to enjoy and reflect upon during the Covid-19 pandemic quarantine. This collection was written by a variety of poets, and I enjoyed some more than others. There are also points in the collection asking you to pause and reflect on a specific poem, which added to the impact. I would recommend this collection to ages high school and up.

A lovely selection of modern poems about hope, gratitude and living in the moment. I enjoyed the discussion questions at the end and wish there were questions for each of the poems.

Such a pretty cover on this one! 💐

I'll start by admitting I rarely read much poetry. However, one of my goals for 2021 was to read more books outside my wheelhouse. I enjoyed this one quite a bit. We all could use a bit more hope and gratitude in our lives, and the poems in this book provided that. They applied to our times. Were easy to relate to. Easy to read and understand. The only minor issue I had with it was it was sometimes got bogged down with extra stuff like biographies of the writers.

I really liked the idea of this book. Poems set out with mindfulness activities to make you stop and think.

I enjoyed this book but liked the premise more. There was definitely a religious slant and some of the poems were heavily family orientated which I cant relate to.

Overall a nice collection which would make a good present to give.

Thank you for the arc.

At first i wasn't flowing with the poeam, but as an anthology it consist of different people's point of view about the world and things that happen in the society. Reading the poems from this perspective, really helped to understand and make sense out of the author's words.

“This is the time
of loaves
and fishes.

People are hungry
and one good word is bread
for a thousand.”

— David Whyte, ‘The House of Belonging’

‘How to Love the World’ has a heartbeat. It is a passionate anthology which will leave those who read or hear a poem from it feeling less alone and more alive. These are strong, lucid poems which show us how poetry is relevant to our lives and to our experiences of the world, on an everyday as well as a more spiritual level.

Showing the power of poetry in celebrating the ordinary miracle, this poignant and evocative anthology takes the reader on a journey around many different aspects of life explored in poems.

These poems enact an interplay between thought and feeling, challenging the intellect at the same time as they draw on emotion. The editor, James Crews, writes: “The poems gathered in this book each ask, in their own ways, ... [a] question, which has more relevance now than ever: Are you happy to be alive?”

Here we find uplifting, deeply felt, and relatable poems by well-known poets from all walks of life and all parts of the United States, including inaugural poet Amanda Gorman, Joy Harjo, Naomi Shihab Nye, Ross Gay, Tracy K. Smith and others, as well as new works by Ted Kooser, Mark Nepo, and Jane Hirshfield.

I have discovered many startling and powerful poets unknown to me (having recently moved to Canada from South Africa) and what I find remarkable is the consistency of excellence throughout the anthology. Stay home and order copies (from independent stores) for everyone you love.

A huge thank you to @NetGalley and @StoreyPublishing for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love the book cover it’s very colourful. I thought the poems in the book where very powerful and I liked how they are by different authors and there are different themes going through the poems.
If you like poetry you will love this book.
Thank you NetGalley for letting me read this.

Wow, I admit I am not a poetry reader. However, this collection of poems was a book I thoroughly enjoyed. I think a book like this is a good way to get the reluctant poetry readers reading.

I received an eARC copy from Storey Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Actual rating 3.5 stars

Praise to the book cover's designer; it looks marvellous! It matches the gratitude this book offers, the hope, and the simple daily appreciation of the things we find everywhere around us. I felt invited to read and absorb the words of this anthology.

This collection introduced me to some new names, new poets I haven't come across yet. For that reason, among many others, I took my time reading it. I wanted to read each poem slowly and get into its depths. I wanted to let it show me its world, let me explore it and hear it the way I should.

How to Love the World speaks about the most tender feelings we so often overlook: hope, comfort, love, compassion, and appreciation, especially in these challenging times (COVID-19, lockdown, loss of the loved one(s)). Sharing here a few poems that spoke to me, spoke loudly:

Naomi Shihab Nye
Over The Weather

We forget about the spaciousness above the clouds
but it's up there. The sun's up there too.

When words we hear don't fit the day,
when we worry
what we did or didn't do,
what if we close our eyes,
say any word we love
that makes us feel calm,
slip it into the atmosphere
and rise?

Creamy miles of quiet.
Giant swoop of blue.

Danusha Laméris
Improvement

The optometrist says my eyes
are getting better each year.
Soon he'll have to lower my prescription.
What's next? The light step I had at six?
All the gray hair back to brown? Skin
taut as a drum?

My improved eyes and I
walked around town and celebrated.

We took in the letters
of the marquee, the individual leaves
filling out the branches of the sycamore,
an early moon.

So much goes downhill: joints
wearing out with every mile,
the delicate folds of the eardrum
exhausted from years of listening. I'm
grateful for small victories.

The way the heart still beats time in the
cathedral of the ribs.
And the mind, watching its parade of
thoughts, enter and leave,
begins to see them for what they are:
jugglers, fire swallowers, acrobats,
tossing their batons into the air.

Lahab Assef Al-Jundi
Moon

Companion of lonesome hearts.
Dreamy shepherd of starry-eyed lovers.
Cratered dusty-faced rock.
This night you shine through
is just a shadow.
Our smallness makes us believe
the whole universe is immersed in
darkness. Midday sun burns on the other
side. Daylight everywhere!

Moon,
perhaps you are here to illuminate
our illusion?

If all suns are extinguished,
all moons and planets collapsed
into black holes,
what tint would space be?
What are colors without eyes?
How do we sense a vibrating universe?

Go ahead and laugh, hanging moon, I
raise my cup to you—
patient teacher.

There are a few very thoughtful details in this anthology too. The editor included a few very interesting "Reflective Pause" moments, and honestly, I think each came at the right time. Each reflective pause brought to my attention detail in a poem I haven't noticed or analysed from a perspective I didn't catch. Also, I felt like each of them gave more life essence to a poem it followed, connecting it to the questions, thoughts, anxieties, etc., we have and face every day.

Then comes the "Invitation for Writing and Reflection". This section is compelling too, as it invites us to "write our own celebration of our 'small victories,' things we managed to accomplish no matter how slight they might seem." These invitations are inspiring; they prompt us to put our minds into written words, to write a line or two, and to take part in spreading the gratitude, hope, love, and affection.

Poets' biographies at the end of this anthology are a detail I appreciate the most. As previously mentioned, some of the poets included in this collection I was not familiar with, so having read their short biographies gave me the chance to learn a bit about them, their backgrounds, and their works.

However, some of the poems felt odd and somehow misplaced, like a wild card of a sort. Some lacked depth, encouragement, or expression, making the theme's concept inconsistent. They didn't emanate that gratitude, positive energy, vulnerability even that connects the rest of the poems to our daily life experiences. All these reasons made me think that the collection was hastily compiled.

To all the poetry lovers, do give this lovely collection a read. Every time I read a poem, I learn something new about it, and the same could happen with this anthology.

Thank you to the publishers for providing me with an eArc of this collection in exchange for my honest review.

I generally thought that this collection of poetry was really good. There was a good variety of different poems some more relatable to me personally than others, but I think everyone will have something to relate to with this collection.

I thought it was beautiful how the collection reflected on the positives and was impressed by how it even had a questions section near the end for group reads!

I would very much recommend this to any/all poetry lovers!

This is one of the most beautiful collections of poetry I’ve read. Each poem flows to the next like an expertly curated mixtape. I highly recommend this to anyone.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the E-book ARC of How to Love the World edited by James Crews in exchange for a honest review.

How to Love the World is a short anthology of poems that remind us to have gratitude, appreciation, love, as well as hope. This collection of poems are accessible pieces for all and represent a wide variety of perspectives. The anthology itself is organized in related sections that have reflection spaces throughout. I read this anthology over a few weeks enjoying and savoring it in small sections allowing me small doses of peace in these new and uncertain times. I recommend it for all those looking for a glimmer of hope,

Thank you to NetGalley and Storey Publishing for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

"How to Love the World" is a collection of poems that invites the reader to reflect on the beautiful moments in spite of the surrounding chaos. With a variety of contributors and focuses that include nature, gratitude, kindness, and love, this book welcomes you to practice noticing the good in the world around you, and take time to be thankful for it.

Though I connected with some poems more than others, what felt particularly special to me was the inclusion of purposeful reflection moments inserted throughout the book. These passages also suggested including gratitude as a part of writing practices, which resonated with me as well.

These poems use imagery and descriptive language to convey their messages, but they are still accessible to the reader. This is the kind of book that you come back to when you need to remember to breathe and be thankful, and I hope to be able to revisit it over time.

{Digital copy provided by NetGalley and Storey Publishing}

Actual rating 3.5 stars

This is a thoughtful collection of poetry that I quite enjoyed diving into. There is a lot of variety which necessarily translates into some poems more suiting my tastes than others. What didn’t really work for me was the framework and the thematic composition. A lot of these poems were a bit too sad to fit the hope and gratitude theme of this collection. Additionally there are poems about every season with only loose distinctions which doesn’t lend itself to reading straight through this book. The tasks and book club questions were a nice idea, but I didn’t feel like I was the target audience, who seemed to be someone older and perhaps even more traditional than me. Still, there are some incredible poems in here, including one by recent inaugural poet Amanda Gorman which I adored. If you seek to take a few minutes away from the world and indulge in some poetry, this may be the collection for you!

How to Love the World is a collection of poems meant for the reader to reflect, find peace, and be inspired. Unfortunately, this collection didn't resonate with me. I found most of the poems uninteresting and lacking the emotional connection that I would expect from a collection like this. The collection isn't bad, but there are really only a few standouts for me, and in a collection with such diverse poets, I expected more.

Advanced copy provided courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Storey Publishing for kindly providing me with a digital copy of this book for review.
I’m not going to lie, what instantly grabbed my attention and made me want to read this poetry collection was the inclusion of a poem by the inaugural poet Amanda Gorman. As soon as I heard her deliver her extremely powerful inauguration poem (not the poem included here), I instantly knew this was a new poetic voice that I was inspired and awed by, and I wanted to find out anything else she had written- cue an internet rabbit hole! Anyway, I was therefore very excited to get to this collection and see what other poems may speak to me in the same way- it’s been a long time since I’ve been so excited about new poetry.
I found reading this collection such a comforting experience. I think it’s designed to re-ignite hope and gratitude in these very difficult times. Unless you have been living off grid and not had any contact with any other humans in the last year, you can not be unaware and unaffected by the Covid-19 pandemic. I know the degrees of this will differ greatly from person to person and country to country, but I do know the colossal impact it has had on my life, and many of the people around me on health, wellbeing and livelihoods. If I ever needed a poetry collection to inspire hope and gratitude, now is certainly time.
As you would expect in any multiple author collections, there were some poems that spoke to me more, and I connected with more than others. I particularly liked the poem by Barbara Crooker entitled “Autism poem: the grid”. I am parent to 2 ASD children so that’s probably not surprising.
I also really liked the interspersed sections that paused the reader and asked them to think of certain things that relate to their own lives. They gave wonderful little opportunities for self reflection and made it feel to me like it was more of a working programme for inner wellbeing, rather than just a poetry collection for the authors to express themselves. There are also some good book group questions at the end as well, which again encourages discussion and connection. I have a feeling I will be returning to this collection again and again.