Faces to the Sun (edited by SJ Blasko)

Have you ever read something that really spoke to you?  You know those kinds of reads, you're enjoying the words that are strung together, you feel emotion towards them and you enjoy the way that those words you make you feel?  This book goes beyond that enjoyment feeling.  The feeling that I got from this book was the feeling of being heard. 

 A lot of people underestimate the importance of being heard, being seen, being represented.  When you're surrounded by characters in literature who are able to deal with what life throws at them, it starts to make you feel like you're the one who isn't strong enough and maybe you're missing something that even fictional characters have.  I mean, Katniss experienced some pretty severe PTSD from being in The Hunger Games, but she survived and was able to garner enough support to lead an entire rebellion that dismantled the entire power structures of Panem.  We're not all as strong as Katniss and we don't all have people to surround us and support us like she had.  Some of us are alone, and even if we aren't, many of us feel like we are alone.

This read left me feeling breathless. It's so achingly accurate. I needed several minutes after some of these entries before I was able to keep going. These poems are deeply powerful and I resonated with several of them. You know how it feels when you are reading something and you suddenly realize you're reading yourself on a page? This book is that.  My grief and my sadness have been this constant cloud that lingers over me and follows me throughout my day, like something that is confining me and no matter how hard I try, I can't break free of it - and believe me, I try.

The poems and a couple of short stories are all centred around adversity and resilience, and everything in between. They are about identity, acceptance, mental health, anxiety and depression, grief, loss, and individuality.  They made me feel less alone, something that is worth more than I can tell you.

I felt very touched by "Bouquet" by Beka Gremikova.  It made me tear up a little.  The first few lines really struck me:

 "The flowers from your mom's funeral still hang upside down from the basement ceiling, dangling over the sink.  You left them there to dry so you could press them between pages, create bookmarks out of the worst day of your life." 

I have included a photo that I took a week ago - the flowers that I hung to dry and what remains of those that dried and lost their petals from the bouquet that my best friends from work sent to me weeks ago after I lost my third pregnancy.  The dried petals on my iPad?  From the yellow lilies in that bouquet.  Same with those green leaves.

Sometimes when we find ourselves reflected in someone else's writing, it can help our own healing.  Thank you, Beka.

I will be buying a copy of this book to put in my classroom for my students. We will be reading some of these poems this year. I know they will relate to them. I'm also going to check out the first anthology, There Is Us. I liked this so much, I may even buy a copy of this book so I can enjoy it on paper.

Huge thanks to the author and Voracious Readers Only for gifting me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review