In 2020, a year of loneliness, illness ,and lockdowns, Sabrina Behaim’s poems explore the month of July. Fighting the problems of mental illness, she has the additional burden of her mother’s diagnosis of an aortic aneurysm when she is far away and can only be reached by the phone. She also has the sorrow of the end of a relationship and the need to move past grief.
The poems are a testament to resilience. Even when things are dark, Sabrina finds delight in eating ice cream for dinner and singing loudly. It’s good to remember that in darkness there can be light and moments to remember.
I thought the poet did a good job making mental illness relate-able. We all face the same sort of problems and the loneliness of the lockdowns made it worse for everyone, but for someone struggling with mental illness it takes even more courage to find the bright spots.
The poems are formatted in different ways. Some are formatted in lines of different lengths to emphasize words and feelings, others are great blocks of text. I admit I prefer the ones that are formatted. Dense block of text are off-putting, but they do convey a message.
This is a book I think many of us can relate to after the trials of 2020. It’s good to have more freedom.
I received this book from Dutton for this review.
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