Poetry is such a gift. Rules exist to be broken or ignored entirely when it comes to this form of writing. It is the form of many cultures’ first stories. Music has taken poetry and set it to a different rhythm. Some poems take their cadence from songs. It is forever changing and evolving. One thing is always the same though: it is emotion put into a structure, and then set.
Trista Mateer had a brilliant idea in 2019. Mateer had gotten her start by using social media to share her thoughts and then her work. She hand made her own chapbooks, and then in 2015 won the Goodreads Choice Award for her self-published first book of poetry. What would happen if she took the mythology of the goddess Aphrodite and mixed it with her own poetry?
What she got was a work that would touch many souls. A collection with her own poems about love, healing and mental health. Combine that with beautiful art, then add the mythology of Aphrodite and poetry for her. What she got was a collection of poems that pulled no punches but also can be like a balm.
That is good poetry though. It can hurt. It can cut you open but then give you words that sew you back up again. Good poetry is a sucker punch to the gut.
Mateer is well aware of this. She knows how to find that balance in her work. She writes what is true. She writes what hurts. She also writes what is beautiful. She writes about the fight to love, to be who you are. To be true. Perhaps that is why there is no goddess better suited to accompany her on the journey of this collection than Aphrodite.
Aphrodite Made Me Do It is a beautiful collection of poems. The book can be difficult to finish. It is worth it, though. It is a journey of finding your own road to self-healing, to understanding that you are not alone through it. The hard times are reflected in the words on certain pages. Love also shines throughout the book.
I highly recommend this book of poetry to anyone. Please pick up a copy of it for yourself.
ALWAYS KEEP SPARKLING!!!
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