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A review by riversnowdrop
The Third Self: Poems about Creative Identity by Salem Paige
5.0
Salem is incredible. This collection spoke to me both as a writer and as someone who believes in transcending the rigidity of “normal”, expected human experience and leaning more into fluidity, change.
I felt so seen in this book. From the very beginning I felt challenged to write, I felt called in to the creative process. Salem does this amazing thing wherein their personal becomes communal, it doesn’t feel shut off or egotistical or indulgent, they simply write truths and we see ourselves in them. I admire so much their use of form and structure and the ways in which each work shifts, and is allowed to do so.
I saved so many of these poems to re-read later, but I want to highlight one in particular that resonated: ‘in a name’. As a trans non-binary person, very much still working things out on my gender *journey*, this poem gave me comfort, gave me hope, gave me permission. Thank you Salem, thank you.
I felt so seen in this book. From the very beginning I felt challenged to write, I felt called in to the creative process. Salem does this amazing thing wherein their personal becomes communal, it doesn’t feel shut off or egotistical or indulgent, they simply write truths and we see ourselves in them. I admire so much their use of form and structure and the ways in which each work shifts, and is allowed to do so.
I saved so many of these poems to re-read later, but I want to highlight one in particular that resonated: ‘in a name’. As a trans non-binary person, very much still working things out on my gender *journey*, this poem gave me comfort, gave me hope, gave me permission. Thank you Salem, thank you.