It was just an okay read, flows well but nothing connected. Not for me this one.

Thank you, NetGalley for providing an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review. 😊🙏🏾

Short but not sweet, "The Forgotten World" is one white man's lament about his race. Throughout the book, the author shares his frustration at all the trouble white people cause around the world. I get that whites and all races have committed crimes against others, but I can't change my color. Instead, I wish to use the blessings I have to impact my sphere of influence and spread love, compassion, kindness, and justice.
I did appreciate the author's note that he wishes to no longer be a tourist in his own life and the reminder to live with love. Also, proceeds of this book go to several charities that address the author's troubles and are striving to make a difference in this world.

This is a great collection of extremely sincere poetry, which my only real criticism is that it doesn't get deep enough, I feel like Courtright is holding back here and there is so much embarrassing white guilt. I don't understand, did he travel to understand the world better or to just feel bad for existing in it? I don't know though, I'm not a white man living in a world that is increasingly rejecting him. "I am a spoiled American who is a voyeur on the heritage of those who have heritage". This is fascinating to me, as someone who feels steeped in heritage, is that what white wanderlust is? Is that where it comes from? A lack of belonging? But also he, as a tourist, complains about being a tourist and other white people being tourists to other countries, when those countries have built themselves up on the money of tourism ("[...] as usual there are too many white people around"). These few attempts at social commentary totally throw me out of the poetry and redirect my mind elsewhere. As well as quips like "As if that opulence weren't enough to make anyone feel awful" literally humble bragging about being wealthy enough to travel (virtually everyone's dream) and then complaining about it? But regardless of all this, the poetry is well written, interesting, and personal. About feeling foreign, or like an invader, when you're merely driven to travel out of curiosity and respect. I think we all can relate to that. However, his poems from Europe and America I found to be the most sincere.

'A Matter of Scale' was my favorite.

Thank you to NetGalley and Gold Wake Press for the opportunity to read this and provide my honest review.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4128787223

"Literally they are stacked high
No one knows who belongs to these skulls
People responsible for this go unprosecuted today
But it's a new day
A monkey pulls over a rope railing protecting a priceless work of stone-carved temple art"

Thank you NetGalley for a chance to read and review this!

This has a terrible cover. The kind of cover that makes you think that the poems will also be terrible, and so the bar was really low. So low that I was genuinely surprised when I found myself enjoying some of Nicks's poems, with "Inside Everyone is a Skull" and "Venus" being my personal favorites.

This collection of poems by Nick Courtright attempts to reconcile the global with the personal as he chronicles his world travels and return home to America. Each step along the way reveals his desire and effort to find a place in this world as he wrestles with internal flaws and external turmoil. I enjoyed reading his thoughts, was fascinated by the snippets of insight and honesty revealed throughout these poems, and found Courtright's voice to be consistently authentic as he told his story through the lens of the world.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book!

This is a searing, self-reflective manifesto on the damage done by men, and white men in particular, to the world and to others. It's never self-pitying or defensive, but instead grapples with big ideas and difficult topics with aplomb and sensitivity.

Short, interesting read. Stream of conscious poetry. Or seems so to me. It flows well, I felt lulled reading it, if that makes sense. I enjoyed it, felt enlightened by it, liked the lay out of it- around the world with it's many issues. Readers who like books written in verse will love it.

A great collection of stories like poetry covering a vast number of countries and the issues with these countries. I enjoyed reading the poetry from the United States section as I felt a great connection with these poems.

*3.5 rounded up to 4*

The Forgotten World is not one journey, but two. The first is an international excursion, seen through the eyes of the poet; the second is a voyage through the mind of the poet himself. I will admit that at first, I wasn't feeling the travelogue style of the collection, not because I don't appreciate traveling to foreign places, but because I found myself wrestling with the lens through which these places were being presented.

It felt, at first, like Courtright was dancing precariously close to the fine line between self-awareness and navel-gazing. As a woman whose family hails from a nation that is treated like a playground for the white and wealthy, I've developed something of a low tolerance for the "punish me, I'm a white colonizer" trope. To quote the poet, "... I looked through the screen to see the screen I was seen through", and having lived my life on the objectified end of what is often referred to as the "white gaze", even the most compassionate of voyeurs is still a voyeur.

However, I am also a firm believer in allowing people to speak their truth, and there was a vulnerability in the fact that this is Courtright's own truth. How he feels about it isn't for me to judge, and there is a marked sincerity in his poetry that cannot be denied. Courtright is indeed very much so aware of himself as an individual and sees himself as a continuation of a heritage that has wrought much destruction across the world. He alludes to atrocities that span centuries and continents, and I have an appreciation for using art as a tool for expanding awareness.

What redeems Courtright and this collection of poetry is the fact that he doesn't stew indulgently in white guilt (thankfully), and instead makes peace with simply trying to be a better person and raise better people. He also contends with a number of other themes such as mental health, the tumultuous state of America, and his complicated relationship with religion. I particularly enjoyed Courtright's poems about love - love that is nearing its end, love that has gone up in flames, and the enduring kind of love that one pours into their children. In the end, these are the poems that won me over.

Thanks to Nick Courtright and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Pros:
Nick's writing style was easy to follow and picture in my head
Global worldview for understanding different places
Rich vocabulary
Poignant topics discussed through prose

Cons:
Would have loved to see some other 'hard' topics discussed that are common in terms of human rights around the world
Didn't love the cover as far as the huge font