for the most part, this collection didn’t hit as hard as his previous one for me. the poems in this one truly shined the more reflective they were, especially those focusing on the gathering thread of the poems, his mother. 

but so much time was spent, in my opinion, meandering that i believe that you could remove the first section and the collection would be stronger for it. my favorite of them all is section 2 where he really began to shine, and returned to the things that made me enjoy his poetry in the first place. the final two sections didn’t quite manage to live up to the second, but it was miles better than that first portion. 

my personal standouts here are:
the last dinosaur 

waterline

rise & shine

dear t

amazon history of a former nail salon worker 

nothing 

ars poetica as the maker

the punctum

tell me something good

woodworking at the end of the world