Book Review – The Raven’s Poison

The Raven’s Poison by Braeden Michaels

Braeden’s blog

The Amazon Link

I read this book in paperback. This is a unsolicited review.

What I Loved:

Braeden Michaels is another one of my favorite poets. He is a master at creating imagery with his varied and vivid lines. Somehow he combines these images to create a scene and that scene, if we allow it, gives us a view deeper into our own humanity.

He writes with such depth and his lines make you really think about who we are as humans and our place in this world, our emotions, and our different perspectives. I find that I can read nearly every piece over and over, each time walking away with more meaning than the time before.

I also appreciate his creativity and his titles are dynamite. Things like “Coughing Up a Smirk”, “Psychobabble”, “Tangled Snowflake”, “Marmalade Boots”, and “The Blush Vertebrae”… how does he come up with these names??

I didn’t find a single grammatical error or misspelling and that made me very happy (because if you know me at all, it is that those are pet-peeves of mine). Also, the paperback quality was very good. A nice size in your hand, great overall length, and the front cover art for me was great.

What I Didn’t:

I honestly have nothing negative to say about this book. It now happily sits on my shelf to be read again and again.

(Some of) My Favorite Bits:

The Lost Scarecrow: the imagery is dark, personifying a person as a scarecrow… we are shown glimpses of a man’s loss, in this case his mother, living in the memories and the pain of that loss, somehow able to crawl beyond the hurting and to reflect on what was and now is

Rattlesnake Postcard: again, his imagery is spot-on, like sitting on a barstool and observing the people around you, all with a story, maybe trying to drown out reality in the booze

Skin of the Beast: living with abuse, I particularly loved the lines “I shivered feeling your wrath – I was quivering from the force of your leather hand…. – You make my blood cold and my bones brittle” which I think very well describes some of the effects from abuse

Sugar Fascination: picking apart an artist’s work (in this case a poet) and falling in love [lust?] with what’s said between the lines, something I think is all too easy to do as readers (or lovers of any type of art, really)

Forever in the Afterglow: a very lovely, romantic poem about falling in love and desiring to know even more about the person, to uncover and delve into all their depths, to keep that love continually burning

Basket of Gold: a personal favorite of mine from a couple years ago when I first read it on his website, because it is so romantic and sweet (and I love love… this hits the spot), especially those last lines: “Hand in hand – Realizing this hand is the only hand – I want to feel for a lifetime” SWOON

My Overall Score:

5 stars

This book is exactly what I want from a book of poetry. Excellent length, quality writing, professional and engaging cover. Worth every penny and minute invested.

My Final Thoughts:

I really feel that Braeden is an understated poet of the day. If I was only allowed to own five books in my library, this would be one of them. Heaven help me when his next book comes out! Truly a pleasure to read his work.

Highly recommended for those who enjoy unique modern poetry that makes you think and feel.

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be a good writer: read.
~tara caribou

**If this review was helpful or you’ve read it and want to add to the discussion, please let me know in the comments!