Hearth and Pages: The Chaos of Longing by K. Y. Robinson

“this voyage—

the chaos

of longing

is no longer

anchored at sea.

i’ve sailed

the desolate shore

of your heart

and got swept away

by your arctic current.

i floated to the surface

with my heart’s

message in a bottle.

i survived you.”

I received a free digital copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Chaos of Longing is a prose and poem collection by K. Y. Robinson. It explores love, heartbreak, trauma, and the aftermath of it all. This book divided into four sections: “Inceptions”, “Chaos”, “Longing” and “Epiphany.” Each section has it owns respective theme and stages of romantic relationship. Starting from the times of yearning and falling for someone, lusting, being in love, falling out of love and learn how to love yourself once again.

The Chaos of Longing is one of the most honest and raw collection of poems I’ve ever read. K. Y. Robinson also included her background as a woman of color in her poems. And it’s always a beautiful and empowering thing to see more representation of people of color in book community.

Most of the poems in this book is unfiltered, emotional and unapologetically sexual. Every poem felt very personal and intimate, that perhaps will make some readers feel uncomfortable reading it. Especially when it tells stories of abusive relationship. Which is why I’m grateful that from the very beginning they put a trigger warning. It’s a thoughtful step and one that we can appreciate from the author and publisher to think about their readers’ mental health.

The journey that K. Y. Robinson take us in this book is a sad, grim and honest one, but not without purpose. The author might write it based on a personal experience, but I can see many people relates to her poems. What I like the most from this collection is how the sorrow journey wrap-up in the final section – Epiphany. Reading this part feels like you finally see the light on the end of a very long and dark tunnel. It’s about self-discovery and self-love and I like it a lot. Some of my favorite poems in this book is from this section, one of them is titled elements ii:

“there’s a universe

swirling inside you.

you have to learn to be

your own earth,

wind, fire,

and water.

you are a natural phenomenon—

not a natural disaster.”

The one thing that I didn’t quite like from this collection is the format of the poems. Honestly, it’s always kind of bugging me whenever I read a poem that doesn’t use capitalize first word in each line. Not that it’s a mandatory thing, and there’s no such rule for it, but I like my poems with traditional capitalize first letter.

All in all, The Chaos of Longing is a good poem collection. It tells a sad story and it’s definitely won’t suitable for some people, but with a satisfying end I think it’s a pretty good book to read out of your comfort zone. If you like your poems raw with lot of emotions that might break your heart, then this book is for you.