 Hey guys, it's Julia and welcome back to my channel, and for today's video I'm going to be talking about my top 5 favorite poetry collections of the year of 2017. So I love poetry so much and I've read a ton of it this year. And I'm not going to be including modern, like not modern ones, I'm not going to be including classical poetry in this list, just because I feel like those are a given for me and I talk about two of those collections that I love a lot, just like at Grail and Poe and Silvia Plath, they're kind of like my faves of poetry, so this stack is modern poetry. But I love it all. Great. I know I look like a brick wall. It's fine. I kind of look like cement. Just leave me alone. I've been stalling filming. Great. Let's get into it. Coming in at number five, I Have Your Doing Just Fine by Charlotte Erickson. This book does have some trigger warnings for addiction, depression, mentions of suicide, and possible references to self-harm in this book. So this is a collection of poetry and prose that deals with obviously very tough subject matter. I would send this for review earlier this year and I just absolutely adored it and I was really like shocked by how this doesn't have as much exposure. So the thing I loved about this the most was the prose. I thought it was very relatable and I thought it was really dark and just, it just felt so real and raw and that's what I really loved about this collection. There were like a few flaws with it. For me just like some lines juxtapose one another, some didn't match up, but like that was a few and it was really good. I gave it around 4.25 stars so that's why it comes in at my number five spot this year. The stars are brilliant at this time of night. I wander those streets like a ritual I don't dare to break and it's quite glorious. I left them by the water's edge still waving along after the ship's been gone. I used to go there to say goodbye. I was young and did not know many people, but I had hidden things inside me that I never dared to show and sounds I tried to kill them. One way or another, leaving sin on my body, scrubbing tears off with salt and I built my rituals in farewells. Endings I still cling to. So I go to the ocean to say goodbye. Coming in at my number four spot, I have Love Her Wild and this is by Atticus. And this is from a popular Instagram and Tumblr poet who decided to publish a official collection. And there is some trigger warnings with this. Don't remember what they exactly are because I didn't write them down. This just deals with a bunch of stuff. Love, loss, I see the word whiskey, just the usual. And there's a lot of photos in here. I really, really love this guys. I know some people haven't liked it a lot, but I love this so much. It's one of the better modern collections that I've read. And I love how it was with black and white images and I just thought some of it was so gorgeous. And I love the poems in here. And like, look, it's beautiful. My only issue with this one and why I didn't give it a full five was just due to the fact that there was one line in this collection that really bothered me. But other than that, everything was great, you know, it's just in one line. So I'm going to read you guys this one. Obsession is not love. In fact, situation is not love. When somebody norms you or treats you poorly, carelessly or within difference, that's not love. That's a lack of love. For yourself, for trying to fill your missing pieces with theirs. When someone is whole and you are whole, you act in kindness and benevolence and vulnerability. Through strength, love becomes an exchange with another person that is its truest form. It's like that. There's another one in here that I love and it's like, if love were labeled poison, we drink it anyways. And I'm like, oh, okay. Yes. So I really like this one. Next up here, I have The Princess Saves Yourself in this one by Amanda Lovelace, coming at my number three spot. This one deals with a bunch of topics as well, but one of them being feminism and you don't need no man kind of thing. Or you can live without one. You don't need one. You know what I'm saying? I love this one, the story of a princess turned damsel turned queen. Beautiful. I'm so excited for her other collection in the future. Yay. She was made of fire and I was made of ice. I came too close to his flame and he melted me with his embers. Reduced me down to a puddle. With time, I froze over again and I was never quite the same. A fragile, watery imitation of what I once was. Where was my fear fire when it came to you? Coming up my number two spot, I have The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur, by Rupi Kaur. So I read Milk and Honey and I really didn't like it to be totally honest. I didn't get the hype. It just didn't hit me like a collection should. But then I read this, her second work. And I was blown away by how phenomenal this was and it deals with so many topics. It even talks about immigration, police brutality, things that I don't really see collections talking about very often. And I'll have more topics that it talks about in the corner because my good rate isn't loading right now and I forgot what other things it had. But this is an absolutely beautiful story. If you haven't heard of her, it has illustrations in it. Like little short poems with illustrations. Yes. With illustrations, yes. So yeah. The collection actually split into the Welting, the Falling, the Brooding, the Rising and the Blooming. And it's just so many fantastic poems. Like you can see how many I tabbed. It's just so good. And I'll read you the one on the back. So this is a recipe of life, said my mother. Think of those flowers you paint. Think of those flowers you plant in the garden each year. They will teach you that people too must wilt, fall, root, rise in order to bloom. Stunning. Read it. Thanks. Coming in to my number one spot, if you couldn't guess it already, it is a beautiful composition of Broken by R.H. Sin. I've read all of R.H. Sin's work. I think his work is phenomenal. My only, like I didn't like his newest release that much. It was all jedonic. Like it was still good, but it wasn't as good as his other stuff. Not my point. But his work is so phenomenal. Like Whiskeywares in a Shovel would be on here as well. And same with Rest in the Morning. But like I didn't want to have my whole top five all of R.H. Sin's work. He talks about so many things. And he really, it's just very personal. And it's like he's speaking to you and he's writing for you in a way. It's just, it gives you that feeling and that comfort. And it's something that's really special about his collections. As you can see, I've had so many. And his are usually shorter, but they're absolutely phenomenal. And I just love them. Usually they deal with loss, love, sadness, moving on, things like that. Just like most collections tend to. It talks about growth as a person. A lot of important topics. I love his work so much. And I'm super happy that he has become one of my staple poetry authors. Like it has his name on it. I'm reading it. Thanks. So the one I'm going to read to you today is on the back of the book. So this is, it's crazy how sometimes you have to be destroyed to be made anew. Everything happens for a reason just like this moment. I do believe that what you're dealing with will pass. And that one's just like a pretty basic one. Let me see if I can find another one. U-Royal. This one's called U-Royal. So today, just like any other day, you'll rise from the ashes. A fire set by those who wish for you to fail. And the prayer in your heart will remain strong. Then words of your enemies. Your money and your strength is your crown. Just things like this are so good. And I love them so much. And I really want to read some, re-read some of his collections. They're super fast reads. Highly recommend them. There you guys have it. Those were my top five favorite poetry collections that I read in the year of 2017. So this wasn't just individual poems, but the collections as a whole that I thought were phenomenal. So there's so many collections that I've read where I've loved poems from them. But this is like the actual whole collection I thought was phenomenal with a few exceptions of some things I didn't like. But this top five list, I love so much. And I will, um, I will what? Oh yes, I will be doing another poetry recommendations video soon. So look out for that. I get tons of messages that you guys enjoy them. So I'm really happy with that. And I will link my, the ones that I've done in the description box if you want to check them out. Thank you guys so much for watching. And I'll see you super soon. Sorry, I look like a brick wall and cement, but it's okay. Bye.