Built By Storms by Miriam Kramer

This is my second time purchasing this book. I bought the second copy for a friend. I love the rawness of this poetry and the fact that it speaks to so many experiences that aren't talked about.

Miriam Kramer's "Built By Storms" is a sometimes solemn, but always buoyant treatise on recovery, mental illness, substance abuse, and more. Her words hum with a fever pitch of a writer and poet battling their battered but still cognizant and self-aware mind. The poems in this book truly resonated with this reader as someone who has a diagnosis and who has anxiety. In short, while some of the books topicality may be deemed as moody and shrouded in darkness, Miriam approaches these topics with real sensitivity and well-roundedness. She doesn't pull her punches at all and I can actually envision a majority of the work contained therein being read aloud. She plants the seeds for her audience to infer their own emotions and glean their own reactions to her plight. As harsh as a majority of the content is, Miriam's willingness to make her words and structure accessible to the everyman is admirable. A level of simplicity, urgency and realness pervades this collection and through that, Miriam translates her insights seamlessly into this opus. For those who are new to reading and deciphering poetry, this book will be undoubtedly for you. It unfolds naturally and powerfully and doesn't get caught up in contrivance. Miriam has a genuine gift that anchors the reader and solidifies her place as one of the finer contemporary poets of her generation. She joins esteemed ranks of Def Poets who have published under WB and she is certainly right at home with them. Definitely seek out this book and it will reward you many times over upon each re-read.

It was timely, to complete the book after re-watching The Matrix series. Miriam's Built By Storms is a promise to anyone flying by, caught in a category winds - you will wake up. You will be messy, and it won't be easy, but you're not the end of another awkward story. You are not the answer to a backhanded compliment. You are here and Miriam writes to that possible feeling of arrival, of being here. Counting to five and believing your life is not by accident. Thank you to this book.

This collection of poems may bring you to tears or make you uneasy, but it will also demonstrate in unbelievably expressive language the power of resilience and hope. At the end you are struck by the raw emotion, courage, and strength of the poet. She embodies the definition of a poet: a creative artist with extraordinary linguistic capabilities and special sensitivity to the medium. Miriam Kramer’s sensitivity extends to the human soul. You will never be the same after reading this book.

This collection by Miriam Kramer is a worthy addition to any poetry lover's shelf! I read this on twice upon opening, The poems in this book evoke a kind of punk rock, die-hard determination even as they speak to those moments when your strength and your hope are gone and you just want to stop hurting. Speaking to mental health, suicidal ideation and trauma, Kramer also reminds the reader to look towards the small graces that we stumble upon during our journeys in this lifescape. There is an authenticity to these poems that people with similar experiences, like myself, will resonate with highly. But even for those who may not have some of these experiences, you are certain to find the grit and the unflinching eye with which Kramer gazes upon the world compelling and genuine. And make no mistake, this is a collection which finds hope and even a dash of gratitude on the other side of struggle. I highly recommend Built by Storms.