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lisathepoetlibrarian's review against another edition
4.0
This collection explores the overlap between what we know and how we emotionally move through the world, much like poetry itself, which takes objective facts and observations and re-examines them with our emotional lens, the part that makes us human. The poems are sparse and direct, filled with an understated lyricism. Throughout there is a struggle to break outside the limitations of both science and the imagination, as the opening poem says, "The thing is just what's said // The line I try to get to // There are rules even for dreams" (3). The idea that each of of us make this lifelong journey of figuring out our own personal science, our own way of making sense of the world, is seen in how this struggle continues even in later poems, "Like the teratoma whose nails will not stop growing,// my life gnaws at me" (60). This book risks looking into the personal, the obsessive, without the need to offer comfort. This courage may embolden readers to reflect on their own mechanisms for navigating their own lives.
sam8834's review against another edition
5.0
Update: I reviewed Personal Science over at the Agape Editions blog: https://bloggingthenuminous.com/2018/02/19/on-discovery-and-obsession-a-review-of-lillian-yvonne-bertrams-personal-science/
The central piece in this book, "Forecast," which is a creative non-fiction piece you wouldn't expect to work in the middle of a poetry book, blew me away and made this collection what it is. I'm in love, and I'll be getting my hands on Bertram's other book soon.
The central piece in this book, "Forecast," which is a creative non-fiction piece you wouldn't expect to work in the middle of a poetry book, blew me away and made this collection what it is. I'm in love, and I'll be getting my hands on Bertram's other book soon.
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