Books That Read Like Poetry

Books that read like poetry. In general I like poetry but I don’t think I’ve ever sat down and read a poetry book cover to cover. Poetry is a bit of a different beast. I’m always in awe of anyone who writes or recites poetry.

Thinking about it some more, I realized that there are some books that make me pause and reread certain sentences or paragraphs. The way the words flow, the pace, and the thought behind it, is exactly like reading poetry. A big difference, however, is that reading these books is not as subjective as poetry. There’s a clear timeline with room for the authors to explain their experience without you, the reader, having to hypothesize.

BOOKS THAT READ LIKE POETRY

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong.

I read this book some time ago but didn’t know where to place it within my mind map of memoirs and creative nonfiction books. This is a very intense book and I think that if it were told as straight prose in a very contemporary voice it would be extremely difficult to read. The raw nature of the subject matter would be difficult to digest. The current, poetic way it is written, means that the words and their meaning worm their way into your soul and you feel the effects without being smacked by their harsh reality..

This is Ocean Vuong’s first novel and I think that’s partly what makes it so special. He draws on the art of poetry while expanding into prose. I want to bring your attention to the pace of this book. The use of paragraphs combined with single sentences, makes the read smoother while highlighting the importance of a single thought. It never slows down, it keeps moving, and you won’t be able to put it down.

Seven of my friends are dead. Four from overdoses. Five, if you count Xavier who flipped his Nissan doing ninety on a bad batch of fentanyl.
I don’t celebrate my birthday anymore.
Take the long way home with me. Take the left on Walnut, where you’ll see the Boston Market where I worked for a year when I was seventeen (after the tobacco farm).
Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous p.174

Three seemingly separate thoughts and yet they are joined to together by, “I don’t celebrate my birthday anymore“. For me, that one sentence stands out. All these events affected him so much that he no longer celebrates the one day that is supposed to be all about him.

There are so many more moments that are like that one. This is a book that will have you thinking about it years into the future.

Mother Winter by Sophia Shalmiyev.

This book was a recommendation from a literary agent after I did my pitch. I was hooked from the very first line, “Russian sentences begin backwards.” I knew exactly what she meant by this sentiment. After reading in Polish and making my way through badly translated texts, I understand how convoluted it can all sound. The English language has a certain simplicity and directness that many others don’t.

This is just one tiny piece of how beautiful this book is and it is nothing to do with the actual subject matter. After spending the past year reading memoir’s, I have to admit that a book about someone searching for a parent is a little tiresome on the surface. What makes this book so special is the language and structure. Each page is made up of seemingly fragmented thoughts and scenes that together make up the whole. It’s as if you took a mirror, smashed it, and then put the pieces back together.

On occasion Sophia Shalmiyev, inserts sentences that would get you kicked out of English class, but since those same sentences fold so neatly into her prose-poetry, they are easily forgiven.

On the plane, I watch my dad’s eyelids glisten like blintzes draped over blueberries. Sometimes I’m still that child, writing my mother letters with blank envelopes, splitting off into voices heard and imagined, hoping it’s all the poetry I recited as a young Russian pioneer with my hand at my forehead saluting the red flag – Always Ready.
Sophia Shalmiyev, Mother Winter p.95

This raw and poignant love letter to her mother will make you want to write to your mother.

Both books are letters written to the authors’ mothers. Letters that will never be read. In, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, the mother cannot read, and in Mother Winter, the mother abandoned her family long ago.

Both authors clearly have a deep bond with their mother’s but it’s one that cannot be expressed with just words. Somehow, they’ve both managed to go beyond the page so that the reader feels their pain, frustration, and longing.

Interestingly, although intense, neither book is overly depressing. Opening the page you will enter a beautiful, touching and heartfelt world. The lines between poetry and prose become blurred and these are both books that read like poetry.