All Along You Were Blooming by Morgan Harper Nichols: book review

All Along You Were Blooming: Thoughts for Boundless Living (2020) is a collection of poems and prose and lines and thoughts.

It is divided into four sections: For the Heart (what you feel), For the Mind (what you think), For the Body (what you do), and For the Soul (who you are).

The poems are about fear and doubt, inertia and confusion, but also about calmness and stillness, peace and wonder, movement and bravery.

Each entry, if you call it that, is written from an introvert’s point of view, looking ouwards, and giving herself hope. Like little inner pep talks to get throught the day – and life: ‘She turned her attention to beauty over perfection, love over comparison, and telling a story of grace, inspiring others to do the same.’ And ‘living in the moment is learning how to live between the big moments.’

A few poems are illustrated and provide signposts, like sticky notes to oneself.

This is an inspirational poetry collection best read and re-read.

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MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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