I really had a hard time with this one, mostly because I had a hard time with the science aspect of poetry.

It’s touching to be able to relate science to feelings. However, this just didn’t really resonate with me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this.

Heavily metaphorical. Very science forward. I read poetry, a lot. But this gave me a bit of a struggle. Challenge accepted but also for the entry level poetry reader i would not suggest this. This would be for a more symbolism focused mind. This goes beyond reading between the lines.

This poetry collection is certainly unlike anything I've read before. But perhaps I wasn't the right audience for these poems, and maybe I wen't in with the wrong expectations. For reference, I love Mary Oliver poetry, and I think I expected nature poetry like that. I had to use Google and Wikipedia a lot, and while I appreciate and am impressed by how the author can integrate a poetic and scientific way of seeing and describing the world, I did get a bit tired having to look up every few words. But perhaps that is part of the experience! Some poems I especially liked were "Dog spark," "Woodlouse," and "Birds (in their places)."

Was this meant to be understood by mere mortals? There was a talk of bees. It is unclear whether the author hates them, loves them, or both. There was a talk of crystals, photons, and various small particles. The author is fascinated with nature and how it's smallest particles work. However, the fascination and fun were for the exclusive use of the author, and not the reader. I was scratching my head reading the lines over and over until I realized there's no use, I couldn't grasp it.

John Liles, you are superiorly smarter than me. Here, hope you're satisfied.

Reader, if you feel an insatiable need to feel brainless, half-witted, or dull, or to just generally feel bad about yourself, this book is for you.

Maybe it's not my cup of tea, or maybe it's not the right time. I hope others enjoy it more.

Is "jargon poetry" a thing? If not, "Bees, and After" might be the first entry of a new genre that could easily be called that, or even "science-core".

It’s not the easiest read, but certainly a unique one.

This collection occupies a curious space where science meets art. John Liles experiments with form, often presenting poems in creative typographic layouts that visually echo the complexity of the subject matter.

Liles explores scientific phenomena through fragmented, lyrical, and frequently enigmatic verse. At times, reading it feels like browsing through a series of poeticized science lecture notes. While the poems rarely rhyme, there’s a rhythmic quality to the language that carries the reader through, as long as they don't get bogged down by trying to decipher the abundant technical terminology.

Luckily, Liles had the foresight to helpfully include footnotes for many of these terms. But, eventually, I stopped trying to analyze every scientific detail and instead read continuously, letting the rhythm and imagery wash over me.

Some topics hit close to home, like the heart beginning and ceasing to beat, or the fact that it’s the first organ to form and function. Others are wonderfully obscure, like a meditation on the most abundant mineral in the earth’s mantle.

Ultimately, some of these poems work beautifully and others less so. "Bees, and After" is not a book to breeze through, but for those willing to engage with it fully, it offers a thoughtful experience.

Smooth like honey, a slow stretching from the dipper falling into my palm. I can lick each word and swirl my tongue to taste each line that's rounded and precise. There's an astonishing texture to the sounds that is fresh that kept me wanting more. The only complication that I found would be the inaccessible vernacular that may be too academic for pedestrian readers. If someone is looking to expand their natural science vocabulary through poetry, then this is the right collection for them.

I didn't connect a lot with the style-- but that's not disparaging, just that poetry is incredibly subjective and unforgiving, whereas often fiction seems a little more grey. That being said, I didn't dislike the content, just didn't connect.

Thanks for the ARC

I'm always down for someone trying to do something unconventional, meshing their interests in a way that is unique and personal to them. Which is what Liles did with this poetry collection, approaching natural sciences through a poets lens, or maybe poetry through a biologist lens. Thing is, if you do something like this, you cater to a very specific niche, and make it hard to appreciate your work fully for anyone outside of it. That's not bad, per se, but it creates a hurdle, especially if the reaser isn't made aware of what he is signing up for.

The truth is I didn't feel any soul in these poems. A deep appreciation for the topic and subjects at hand, yes, but zero emotional substance beyond it. At least none that came through. One can tell Liles cares deeply about the natural world around him, so it is unfortunate that he did not manage to make me feel anything at all. Now, not all poetry has to be gut-wrenching, but I was expecting to - at the very least - be intellectually stimulated in some capacity by something like this. Smart phrasing and words means little if that's all there is.

This is of course to large parts subjective, and it's hard to gauge what others will connect with. It is simply not what I personally expected, look for, or enjoy in poetry. I think more science focussed minds might get more out of this than I did. If what I said earlier about the nature of this work intriques you, who knows, you may like this collection.

This books is best in small portions. Preferably outside in the woods, on the beach or on a grass lawn with the birds chirping away around you. Nature is the thing in this poetry collection and is there anything more beautiful than nature? The poems make you feel a bit small and makes you think about your place in the nature.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this ARC. All opinions are my own.

Thought provoking poems that occasionally float on the page like bees, other times are heavy and stagnant like rocks and minerals. Very much nature based, not just bees and pretty flowers. This is a book best read at a casual pace, after a picnic with others taking turns to read and lying in the grass.

I wouldn't read this to be entertained so much as to understand the less-visible things in life. Maybe not "less-visible." More underappreciated rather than unseen.

Reading this was watching stars burst in slow motion, or atoms colliding to become molecules. There was also something curiously beautiful about the creation of the human heart, as told in the selection "Cardiac Knotting." Though "Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning" was an equally interesting addition.

There were a few sections that were slower than others, but the more standout pieces were well worth it.

3.5 stars

Thank you Netgalley, publishers, and the author for an arc of this book

Liles's poetic voice in "Bees, and After" achieves remarkable synthesis between scientific precision and lyrical intensity, creating poems judge Rae Armantrout describes as "dense, sonically gorgeous studies of various natural things." His language maintains microscopic attention to detail while simultaneously opening toward cosmic significance, finding in specific creatures—"light, bees, minerals, shellfish and crabs, insects"—apertures to larger understanding.

A reader can choose to read John Liles’ poetry collection Bees, and After in several ways (speaking as a casual reader of poetry). One way is slower, taking one’s time to piece together (and possibly look up) the perhaps unfamiliar and sometimes arcane scientific language, words like allelopathy, diatomaceous, or mesenchymals that are scattered throughout the collection. Reading this way reveals Lile’s remarkable awareness of the organic and inorganic world on a level most of us do not see or consider, as well as it highlights his precision in use of those terms. It’s a brave choice, but one that extends the idea of “nature” poetry beyond its usual incarnation.

On the other hand, one can just glide right by those unfamiliar words, following along with the no-less-precise, no-less-original images and language that require no further exploration while enjoying the warmly intimate addresses to the creatures, minerals, and other elements we share this planet and sometimes our body with, whether it’s a swarm of bees, a moth, some quartz, or our own heart. Do not lot those above words (or their brethren) scare you off. Not only can one follow the poems (not easily, don’t get me wrong—they do require attention), but there is an emotionality here despite (perhaps sometimes because of) that scientific language. And I have to say that Hall kills his endings, more so than most poets I read (again, as a casual reader). I found the payoffs time and time again were well worth the work even if an individual poem didn’t full engage me.

Finally, one could also easily simply revel in the sound play that permeates these poems, a wonderfully sprightly mix of consonance, alliteration, and near rhyme. As with the “b” sound here, in “Solar Photon”, where the title particle will
“Break/the body to burn,/butcher, and backbone/an atmosphere’s carbon”.

Or the interior rhyme of “stalagmite brush hushed a sea sponge,” the near-rhyme of “to spark open wax …/gristle and grasp.” The collection is rife with music, and one can enjoy it for that alone.

These poems, as noted, are not easy. And I confess to struggling with some, either to follow or in terms of an emotional connection. But even in those cases. I fully enjoyed their sound elements and, in the vast majority, felt an impact in their closing few lines. It’d say they repay the work to fully grasp them or if you want to just let them wash over you.
3.5

The cover drew me in. The title was intriguing and gave a taste of the style of poetry. As someone who is a fan of E. E. Cummings' poetry, Liles' style was reminiscent of it in the way that he put his words together so that I felt them beyond their meanings.

After seeing so much poetry about mountains, planets, the sky and it's stars, it was refreshing and new to read about the miniscule and that which we cannot see. We begin with "Solar photon", something so small but so essential to all life, so, in a way, we begin at the beginning. Liles' transition from the half lives of compounds to "Half-life (animal)" was brilliant. His ability to humanize even the nonliving is wonderful and absolutely changed my perspective of the world.

The poetry was highly scientific. This is both a pro and a con. As someone who is studying chemistry, I never thought OIL RIG could become poetry --- it was delightful. However, in some parts it was so scientific that it limits its accessibility to even the more scientifically educated reader. The footnotes were helpful, but often not enough. Though, I found I could manage with the feeling amd context of the words that I didn't not know.

Overall, Liles' ability to employ words in such new ways is excellent, but the effect of this was perhaps inhibited by my lack of knowledge. I think that mixing science and poetry is lovely because poets may not often want to read about science, and scientists may not often want to read poetry, but, like this, these paths can cross. For me, personally, some poems hit harder than others, which explains my rating, but I'm glad I read this collection.

Thank you Netgalley, Yale University Press, and John Liles for sending me this advanced review copy for free. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This was like if poetry and a nature textbook had a baby.

Very dense and info packed, but strangely mesmerizing at the same time.

Overall, Liles' Bees, and After was a hit or miss poetry collection for me. Liles alternated between a very economical, abstract style, and a more confessional, evocative style. The latter style was far more enjoyable, inserting human experience within Liles' reflections upon nature's seasonal and life cycles. Poems like 'Half-life (opal)' took a 'hydrated and amorphous form of silica' and applied it to our sense of self and body - 'you are honey soft' / 'you / nothing like the other, hold / for a moment / one body of light'. Similarly, when the animal was used to understand relation between human beings in 'Restful amyg' - 'an animal I / flex into a dark so / easy'. And finally, the application of scientific terms to human experience was far more moving than when simply used in the abstract pieces - 'when the heart meets her / myocytes, she's electric' [My knowing better].

I am usually not a huge poetry lover because the metaphors and symbolism tend to go right over my head. But, I do find myself gravitating towards the more straightforward poetry. When I saw that this compilation was about science, I knew I wanted to check it out.

This one is right up my alley in terms of straightforwardness. However, I do believe that this was meant for people that have more scientific knowledge than me. I took a year of science courses in college, but there were a lot of words and concepts in here that I did not fully understand, which detracted from my experience. I do think that academics in biology will probably love this, and it’s such a great way to instigate a crossover of the STEM and creative fields. There are many people within STEM majors/careers that would not normally pick up a poetry book because of the same reasons as I mentioned above. But this allows them to experience poetry in a way that is directly targeted to them.

I loved that the majority of the poems focus on existentialism. That has always been my favorite poetry topic and to combine it with nature visuals causes you to think more critically about real issues.

Thank you to Yale University Press for allowing me to read a copy of this compilation through Netgalley.

Bees, and After propone una mirada profunda sobre la conexión entre la naturaleza y lo humano, con imágenes potentes que invitan a repensarnos como parte del ecosistema, no por encima de él. Poemas como Without Which y The Steady State logran transmitir esa sensación de que el corazón humano, como un panal, no se sostiene solo sino a través del contacto y la interacción con el entorno. Es una metáfora hermosa: no sobrevivimos aislados, sino gracias a lo que absorbemos del mundo y de quienes nos rodean.

Me gustó mucho cómo el autor cruza ciencia y poesía, aunque justamente eso fue lo que a veces me generó cierta distancia. El lenguaje técnico o más "biológico" me hizo sentir como si estuviera en una clase de ciencias naturales (¡pero en el buen sentido!). Aun así, esa elección estilística también impidió que conectara emocionalmente con algunos textos.

Hubo imágenes y líneas que me impactaron, sin duda, y otras que me dejaron algo indiferente. Creo que es una colección que puede resonar de forma muy distinta según el lector. Personalmente, si bien no me llegó de lleno, valoro la originalidad de la propuesta y sin dudas me interesaría leer más de este autor en el futuro.

Una lectura que invita a detenerse y observar nuestra naturaleza compartida, aunque no siempre logre conmover.

It's a 3.5 for me. It is a book of science poetry, written well but I did not connect with the poems. I am a STEM major so I was looking forward to read this book. The poetry I usually read is simple and direct (Rupi Kaur, r.h. sin). I could see and feel the passion of the author for science and nature but there were poems that I couldn't connect with. There were poems where the science was so complex I had to search for the definitions of certain words. And though it is done right, and in a beautiful way I just couldn't connect with it. It felt like I would connect with one poem and then feel disoriented for the next 7.

Bees, and After (Volume 119) by John Liles

4.5

A dense & gorgeous look at the natural world around us.
What I loved 💕
💕the way the poetry highlights nature
💕 Looks at us as equal to other creatures
💕some fabulous poem title like ‘Amnesic Shellfish poisoning’
& ‘Head lost illuminating’
💕a younger poets collection

Surprise me 😮
😮 The poems feel more scientific than emotional at times

Quotes:
“when the dark goes down
And you are photon-lonely”

Ideal reader ⭐️:
⭐️ People looking for a poetry collection that is more scientific
⭐️ People looking for a poetry collection that centres animals