short and striking, Nava EtShalom's poetry collection feels so fully of history and cogent even when its difficult. absolutely loved the usage of biblical imagery and emphasis on the what next of decolonization.

Great poetry collection, but sadly this style of poetry felt incredibly complex and mysterious to me, and I'm afraid I couldn't unpack many of the ideas behind it. I did enjoy many lines in the poems, though, and I felt this collection was refreshing and powerful. My favourite poems were "Materials", "Generation" and "Charisma". It's great to see that Button Poetry is publishing varied styles and themes.

This poetry collection was extremely deep and powerful. Every piece had something important to say. I just wish there had been more poems.

Today I am #reading: Fortunately by Nava EtShalom (@netshalom), published by @buttonpoetry. This #chapbook was published last week! A balance of scared and profane, a tradition of writing I gravitate to because the elevation of imagery. We all make a god out of something in our lives and Nava navigates the altar she has built through this book.

In Fortunately, the poetry of Nava EtShalom reveals the hidden secret of life and objects while living under the permanent pressure of the inevitable sense of the ending. The religious references - ´we´re living in the waiting room´ - punctuate the balance of nature and add a different dimension to the complexity of the exploration. The poems - my favorite from the collection is Earthquake - are organised as part of a larger story which reveals to the reader one verse after another.

I’m going through a poetry stage at the moment. With the current world we live in it’s quite hard to focus on books and detailed plots and my concentration is not quite what is normally is. There’s something about poems that is perfect for right now. The option to dip in and out, so much in a few lines, different fresh meanings with each reading...

This is a short book of poetry that I’ve now read through three times. Each reading it has grown on me and I’ve found a different layer. Etshalom has quite a unique writing style and this flowed really well together. A great one to return too and select from at random.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Very short, powerful book of poems suffused with old testament imagery. They give off a sense of foreboding, of making normal situations strange, and being at the mercy of greater (supernatural?) power, as in 'Charisma':

I’m more Mosaic every week: virtuously
burned, slow of speech. My brother
speaks for me. I am a brutalizer
of the brutalizer, a pillar of correctness
following a pillar of smoke and a pillar
of fire. I am slow of speech. I’ll go
to the top of the mountain alone
for my epiphany, for my glimpse
of all the murderers and orchardists
to come, whom I have been defending
all these years under whatever laws
I can remember with my unbearable
face, that was young when we began.

Very interesting poems; wish there was more!

This was described as a collection heavy on the religious themes and verbiage, but not necessarily about religion itself. I think that's an apt description. Personally, I thought the language itself was beautiful, but I struggled to see a connection between the individual poems that united the entire collection. While I did struggle to see an overall message or connection, I think the poetry was well written and would be beautifully read out loud.

This was a unique and interesting collection of poems. The wording was beautiful and the format was easy to read. The poems were really interesting and unique.

I devoured this collection. I sometimes struggle with poetry in that it is trying to hard to convey a specific idea; or trying to convey something so vast that it doesn't resonate with me. That is NOT the case here. Nava EtShalom grabbed me, held me, and made me feel with each piece presented. I was there in the moments alongside Nava, and even in those moments where I have zero experience I never felt like an outsider looking in, instead I was the speaker in the poems and I stood within the world Nava revealed to me. This collection dealt with culture, religion, and family in a way that carried me through each piece. I'm not a religious person, and find myself turned-off from books or poetry when God plays a very central role, however; while God appears in this work often, I didn't feel that way. There was a message here, an emotion, that sucked me in deeply, into Nava's thoughts and experiences that I just could not put down. Highly recommend.

These poems are sparse, but fully loaded. One feels as is they are in Israel through these poems. Everything is here, the Bible, the History of a scattered people, where one came from, where one is going, it is all here in poems that one can see. I enjoyed this small collection. There is imagery and hope throughout this collection.

Name: Fortunately
Poetess: Nava EtShalom
Genre: Poetry, War, Suicide, Spiritual, Religion
Review:
A beautiful collection of poetries which takes you on the path of Spiritual awakening. The poetess, Nava EtShalom begins a journey which travels from religion to war and suicide and then she moves to healing with her works.
A good read, though a short one. I really liked this book.
I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for receiving the advance copy of this book.

Fortunately by Nava EtShalom is a beautifully written and thoughtful collection of poems that speak to the subjects of war, suicide, and death, although I must admit that the numerous religious references contained within eluded me for the most part. I found myself largely unable to connect with the poems in a truly meaningful way, though I could certainly appreciate the lyrical flow of this short, yet powerful, collection. Although the poet's collection did not particularly resonate with me on a spiritual level, I am grateful to have experienced her lovely and formidable words.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Button Poetry for the opportunity to read this ARC.

THIS WAS GREAT. The first few poems were perhaps the weakest ones, but then it just got gradually more and more interesting and the more I think about this collection the more I like it. Such a clear and intriguing theme and an amazing cover. It IS very short, but each poem is of high enough quality to make it worth it.

Fortunately features beautiful and captivating words. I love how Nava EtShalom celebrates life and language.

I really enjoyed Fortunately. I read a fair amount of poetry and of course often times it requires multiple reads in order to get close to the author's intentions, therefore I think it is a challenge to review poems when the way in which they might be interpreted is so subjective. EtShalom presents a great deal of imagery, mostly Judaeo-Christian in nature and seems to set it in a variety of backdrops, clashing urban and other such man-made themes. I enjoyed the poem God of suicides. It felt forth-right, gutsy and bold. It kind of rendered some connection with Plath I felt while reading. So maybe if that is your bag, you will like this too.

There are 23 poems in this collection, all interacting with spirituality and the self, in a variety of short and long forms. Personally, I only connected with the penultimate poem and found the rest of the collection to be rather surface level and uninspiring. I also know that I'm particular about poetry and I often find it difficult to connect with certain poets' output. I'm not the ideal reader for this collection, but can see the merits in it and know that many will enjoy these poems.

This book gives you the space to reflect, learn, love, and relish in the language and imagery of worship. It's a stark collection, but the short chapbook helps readers confront their loves and what they might cost.

Wow. WOW. I can't remember the last time I teared up while reading a poem, but this one got me with nearly every one in the collection. Each poem is contemplative and vulnerable. I want to read it a hundred more times. I wouldn't say I'm a particularly religious person, but this book made me feel SPIRITUAL. Isn't that something special?

Nava EtShalom notes on her website that she "learned to talk in Jerusalem and to read in Brooklyn." A doctoral candidate in English at the University of Pennsylvania, EtShalom is an educator who has taught literature and writing classes for undergraduates and political workshops in radical movement spaces.

She has taught poetry to kindergarteners.

She is now in Philly, describing herself at the end of her chapbook "Fortunately" as a "newly disabled poet" for which she offers no explanation other than the 23 poems upon these pages laid bare that reveal her spirit and the broken spaces within life for which there are no easy questions or answers.

EtShalom utilizes religious imagery that is immersive and intimate and universal, a spiritual tapestry of life's deepest moments stitched together by her "God of Suicides" and by the cultural waves that reverberate more deeply within us than we are often able to realize.

She feels these waves. These waves crash throughout "Fortunately."

Nava's poetry has won 92Y's Discovery Award, a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, and prizes from the Academy of American Poets. As an editor, she's worked on stories for "This American Life," the New York Times, and other outlets.

Familiarity with the meaning that grounds her imagery is helpful to fully appreciate the wonder that is "Fortunately," but it is by no means a requirements. "Fortunately" will breathe this understanding into you, perhaps not with words but with a soul that seems to understand.

"Fortunately" is worship and healing, gratitude and grace, grief and trauma. Celebration.

There is a sense of mosaic wholeness, a spirituality borne of love and innocence somehow existing, not quite peacefully but existing, amidst the violence that surrounds us and festers within us.

Due for release by Button Poetry on July 21st, "Fortunately" will engage, inform, challenge, and flicker like a solitary candle on a lonely rainy night.