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A review by labyrinth_witch
Where Hope Comes From: Poems of Resilience, Healing, and Light by Nikita Gill
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
I don’t remember when I originally started this book. But since I started it on page 38 today and finished on page 145 an hour later, I’m tracking time that way.
Why did it take me so long to read it? When I originally started it, it triggered too much of COVID feeling and I couldn’t keep reading it. This is, after all, Nikita Gill’s COVID poetry collection.
But today I was sad. Very sad. I was thinking about the three genocides going on right now. The water wars that are about to start. And I was thinking how I have that same sense from COVID- that desperation of feeling like you’re about to die, that the world as you know it is about to combust, and there is still so much you haven’t done/seen/said/felt. And my brain felt itchy- like I needed to do everything all at once before the clock runs out. And yet, so tired that all I can do is curl up in bed and hope nobody asks me for any effort today.
So I picked up this volume and started at my bookmark. And I cried. And I dog-eared nearly every other page. And I felt. I felt the tiredness. I felt her trying to find a reason for the madness, for the cruelty, for reasons to stay, for kindness making small yet cumulative changes. I felt her trying to find meaning out of a meaningless pandemic. And I cried some more. I think I needed to cry. Because my body was tense as if bracing for impact or trying to hold myself up. My jaw was clenched because anger is so much easier than sorry. And my head felt fuzzy and achy and throbbing. Like a storm breaking, I cried. There is something about poetry that unlocks the pain in just the right way. And like when a story breaks, you feel a rush of release and relief.
So if you need to - want to- cry right now. Reach for poetry.
Why did it take me so long to read it? When I originally started it, it triggered too much of COVID feeling and I couldn’t keep reading it. This is, after all, Nikita Gill’s COVID poetry collection.
But today I was sad. Very sad. I was thinking about the three genocides going on right now. The water wars that are about to start. And I was thinking how I have that same sense from COVID- that desperation of feeling like you’re about to die, that the world as you know it is about to combust, and there is still so much you haven’t done/seen/said/felt. And my brain felt itchy- like I needed to do everything all at once before the clock runs out. And yet, so tired that all I can do is curl up in bed and hope nobody asks me for any effort today.
So I picked up this volume and started at my bookmark. And I cried. And I dog-eared nearly every other page. And I felt. I felt the tiredness. I felt her trying to find a reason for the madness, for the cruelty, for reasons to stay, for kindness making small yet cumulative changes. I felt her trying to find meaning out of a meaningless pandemic. And I cried some more. I think I needed to cry. Because my body was tense as if bracing for impact or trying to hold myself up. My jaw was clenched because anger is so much easier than sorry. And my head felt fuzzy and achy and throbbing. Like a storm breaking, I cried. There is something about poetry that unlocks the pain in just the right way. And like when a story breaks, you feel a rush of release and relief.
So if you need to - want to- cry right now. Reach for poetry.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic