this collection was so disappointing. everything i love about olzmann was stretched out and weakened. his conversational style and casual tone run themselves into the wall and just read as a man griping about societal issues at large. at some points it felt more like being lectured or overwhelmed with facts, reading like a chopped up foul tones instagram infographic in a poor excuse for a poem. some of the standout poems in this collection that i did like (which was less than a quarter of the total amount of poems) have already been published for years online. it's a bittersweet thing to see a poem you love on the page finally, but have it cheapens by being surrounded by mediocrity and much less tension or drive. often a poem meanders until a random stanza (usually the very last one, rarely in the middle, and never the beginning) and suddenly it feels like olzmann stops talking and starts writing. but then the poem comes to halt, either ending or continuing on with just his thoughts. he doesn't try to push the boundary of language or craft, instead just walking in circles talking to himself. quite disappointing after i anticipated this collection so much after his sophomore one. i really cannot get over the fact i read a poem about a pigeon lecturing about the food crisis in the most plain and boring cadence and style.

I often place books on hold at the library without noting where I heard of them or why I want to read them. This was one of those. So thanks, past-Me, for making a good choice. This was a collection I looked forward to picking up each morning.

Olzmann writes narrative poems in the style of letters (which, it could be argued, all poems are). He certainly has his corny, on-the-nose moments -- he is a writer of his time, after all -- but what sticks with you is the work's playfulness, its genuine curiosity, its honesty. It may be interesting to pair some of these poems with John Green's The Anthropocene Reviewed.

From "Letter to the Person Who, During the Q&A Session after the Reading, Asked for Career Advice" (13)

If I could do it over, I'd suggest an entry level position
standing by a river bank,
or a middle management opportunity
winding like fog through the sugar maples of New England.

From "Letter to the Person Who Carved His Initials into the Oldest Living Longleaf Pine in North America" (79)

Tell me what it's like to live without
curiosity, without awe. To sail
on clear water, rolling your eyes
at the kelp reefs swaying
beneath you... To discover
something primordial and holy.
To have the smell of the earth
welcome you to everywhere.
To take it all in and then,
to reach for you knife.

My favorites were "Letter to the Person Who Carved His Initials into the Oldest Living Longleaf Pine in North America" (79), "Letter to William Shatner" (20), "Letter or Jennifer Chang and Evan Rhodes Regarding a Variation in the Fabric of Time (48), and "Letter to Matthew Olzmann from Ross White, Re: The Tardigrade"

I heard "Letter Written While Waiting in Line at Comic Con" read by the author on the Ours Poetica YouTube channel, and loved it (especially the first stanza). It is, of course, far and away the best poem in this collection and the one that spoke to me the most, and made me think of people I cherish in my life and how I feel when I am with them.

I really liked this collection's premise and its connection to the postal service, and the idea that every poem is a letter to or from someone, sometimes to a person, to a canyon, to a car's radiator, to the future, from a flying saucer, or from the Roman Empire.

My other favorites in this collection were "Letter to the Person Who Carved His Initials into the Oldest Living Longleaf Pine in North America" and "Letter to Matthew Olzmann, Sent Telepathically from a Flock of Pigeons While Surrounding Him on a Park Bench in Detroit, Michigan.