Someone Else’s Thoughts - Poems by a Young Woman

[janegarfinkel]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Someone Else's Thoughts - Poems By a Young Woman" by Jenter.]

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“Someone Else’s Thoughts - Poems by a Young Woman” is a selection of twenty poems, written by an author who goes simply by “Jenter.” The book is self-published, a fact made clear by the quality of the writing. The topics of the poems are varied, but generally involve the author’s personal experience with friendship, love, and growing up. Many of the poems are sentimental and reflective in nature.

The author, whose gender I have attempted not to assume, notes that the poems were written while they were between the ages of 20 and 30. While the order of the poems may suggest the aging progress of the author, the complexity of the poems does not share in that progress. Grammar and spelling issues, which can be noted from the start, suggest a lack of editing. In the poem “Lovers apart souls together,” a line is as follows: “I love this guy form another country.” This text-message-esque writing style, spelling errors included, is constant throughout the selection. At times these mistakes could pass as artistic license, such as in the poem “Be Silly,” in which the words “Money” and “Silly” are capitalized, perhaps to imply the importance of these concepts. This creativity, if it is indeed so, is overshadowed by the generally poor writing quality.

As for format, most of the poems are simple couplets, at times rhyming the same word with itself. The sentences are not varied in structure, creating a staccato effect. All twenty of the poems are similar in length and come off as a stream-of-consciousness, narrated almost without exception by the author. When the eighteenth poem titled “Ugg” broke this pattern, I was so surprised that it actually took me a moment to realize that it is written from the perspective of the author’s dog, a “little tabby mix.”

Reading these poems brought me back to my middle-school English class, angst-filled prose reflecting on rather mundane topics. Despite this, there is some joy that manages to sneak through, particularly in the poem “Moving forward.” The author encourages the reader to “Live like you are made of silver and gold. Like your story is to be written, not already told.” These phrases reek of cliché, certainly not the only ones in this selection to do so. While the author may not be a skilled poet, their lovely nature is apparent despite the lack of depth, originality, or proper grammar in this book.

I rate this book 1 out of 4 stars. Overall I cannot recommend these poems, but I do recommend that the author continue writing for their own enjoyment and maintain the positive attitude they demonstrate throughout “Someone Else’s Thoughts - Poems by a Young Woman.”

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