SOMETIMES I FEEL LIKE...

A volume of poetry deals with addiction and trauma.

In this collection of 125 poems, Hunter portrays the constant emotional struggle that accompanies the fight against addiction. “Today is a new day / The drugs say they will not be denied / I’m going to do my best to resist / And if they should win / At least I know I’ve tried” ends the unambiguously titled “I’ve Tried,” an apt representation of the hopefulness and brutal honesty that permeate the volume. Faith and trust in God are presented as key, but other poems are keen to show the nuances of those striving to move beyond their vices. “Don’t Take it Personal” urges patience with those in recovery and shows how singular the process can be: “It’s the side effects of the medicines / That’s altering my mood / Everyone has problems… / Sometimes I overlook others / And all I see is me.” The book shines when it focuses on this kind of self-awareness. The collection brims with exceptional insights into the frustrations addicts face and the difficult process of recovery. Though it never advocates bad behavior, the work doesn’t go into the specifics of what those grappling with trauma do to those around them—a fact the book is straightforward about in “Secrets,” confessing, “I only tell half the story / The rest I won’t admit.” The majority of the poems utilize basic rhyming couplets or a simple abcb rhyme scheme. This gives them an alacrity reminiscent of street-corner freestyle, particularly useful when illustrating the manic anxiety that comes from negative thinking and the battle for sobriety. But the collection gets very repetitive, as many of the poems share similarities that go beyond the thematic, telling the same story of hitting rock bottom, finding God, and starting over. This can quickly become tedious. Furthermore, some standout works, like “Agape Love,” feel out of place in the volume. Though this is an editing—not a quality—issue, it makes the book feel unnecessarily monotonous and less cohesive.

An insightful but overstuffed collection about addiction.