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“A collection of poems written from the perspective of an alien.”

It’s a simple premise that’s been done before, but Vessel (@vessel_poetry) distills each poem’s message in a way that makes them read more like the works of Confucius than traditional prose. They are poetic truisms that reflect the human mind, body, and soul. At first you might be taken aback when you flip to a page and only see a handful of words printed, but those words put together mean so much more than everything I’ll write in this review.

Separated into four parts—Random Findings, How They Love, Mental Health, and Counsel—each of the nearly one-hundred ninety poems deals with an aspect of humanity that many gloss over in daily life. The beauty in poetry, as Vessel teaches us, is how poignant these messages can be when you cast a light on them.

The messages aren’t all astonishing, but at the very minimum I left a poem thinking it was competent. At most—profound. It’s an independent work, so there are a few errors. A couple of poems were reprinted in other parts of the collection (more wisdom can’t be a bad thing), and one typo, I’m assuming, although I’m staring at it wondering if I’m not reading the poem in the correct context. Probably not.

These small issues aside, this is a wonderful collection of poetry that any lover of the written word should have on their shelf.

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