Lullabies (Lang Leav)

I left a bookstore without it and literally bought as soon as I got home. I'm not much of a literary person, but these poems are clever and speak to me on a personal level. I particularly enjoy when she personifies characteristics or words.

I love Lang Leav's poetry- simple, understated, raw, and cuts to the bone. The poems here are pretty much more of the same from her first book, Love and Misadventure. If you're a heartbreak kind of person, keep a box of tissues handy for this hits home.

Lullabies by Lang Leav is a collection of poems that tell a story of her personal heartbreak. The book is a nostalgia infused collection of what once was, and the pain she went and is going through to mend what is left. It is very sad themed, but it is extremely enjoyable. Through Leav’s writings you can almost feel what she feels. The pain and love is so vivid, it’s like you’re experiencing it first hand. Leav builds you up on the memories of love, then drags your heart through the mud by slowly telling the story of losing the one you love, the pain of mending the pieces, and the struggle of moving on. One of my favorite poems in the novel is

Three Questions

“What was it like to love him? asked Gratitude.
It was like being exhumed, I answered. And brought to life in a flash of brilliance.
What was it like to be loved in return? asked Joy.
It was like being seen after a perpetual darkness, I replied. To be heard after a lifetime of silence.
What was it like to lose him? asked Sorrow. There was a long pause before I responded:
It was like hearing every good-bye ever said to me—said all at once.”

This poem alone gives any person an overwhelming feeling of sadness. Leav creates emotion so pure in her words. In my experience, this is my favorite book of all time. There is no other writer, collection, or poem alone that could ever possess the strength and overpowering emotion that Leav creates. Her words will stick with you indefinitely, and always leave you yearning for more. Because it is impossible to pick favorites, I have two more exerts chosen.

The Girl He Loves

There was a man who I once knew,
for me there was no other.
The closer to loving me he grew,
the more he would grow further.
I tried to love him as his friend,
then to love him as his lover;
but he never loved me in the end-
his heart was for another.

“Here are the things I want for you -

I want you to be happy. I want someone else to know the warmth of your smile, to feel the way I did when I was in your presence.

I want you to know how happy you once made me and though you really did hurt me, in the end, I was better for it. I don't know if what we had was love, but if it wasn't, I hope to never fall in love. Because of you, I know I am too fragile to bear it.

I want you to remember my lips beneath your fingers and how you told me things you never told another soul. I want you to know that I have kept sacred, everything you had entrusted in me and I always will.

Finally, I want you to know how sorry I am for pushing you away when I had only meant to bring you closer. And if I ever felt like home to you, it was because you were safe with me. - I want you to know that most of all.”

This was an all-around beautifully constructed book of poems, and I fully recommend it to all of my friends, and family. It will surely bring you on an emotional roller-coaster, so bring plenty of tissues!

I cannot say it enough, Leav is a remarkable writer, thinker, and person. I love her poetry. She has a way with words that makes you feel as if her feelings are your own. Lang Leav is so talented that after each poem I find myself wanting more and am not ever satiated. I can't wait for more of her work.

After reading Lang Leav’s collection of emotional poems, I felt as if I was present through the thick and thin of her relationship. Her creative descriptions of how she was feeling and coping with her loss really allows the ready to understand the poet. This collection of short poems is a must read because it highlights the tragedies of heartbreak and the different emotions that are accompanied with loving and losing someone.

Her collection is set up in three sections: “Duet, Interlude, and Finale”. Each section correlates with the stages of her relationship and how she felt in each. In the first section, “Duet”, Leav’s poems are short and quick to read and they are filled with the happiness that comes with a new relationship. Because these poems are so short, it causes the reader to rapidly read through them and wonder what will happen next. She perfectly describes the emotions that she is feeling in several of her poems referring to her lover as “the one” and “her only love” which later will become her emotional downfall towards the end of the collection.

My favorite poem from her first section is called “Patience”. It tells a story that highlights the frustration that comes with finding the perfect love but, it also shows the relief that is experienced when they are found. People are always so close to finding love, but it never works out until it’s least expected. The irony behind the names of the characters in this poem, Patience and Love, gives a whole other level of understanding and meaning behind the poem. I also felt that this poem is very relatable because of the topic that it covers, and the way the poet writes it allows the reader to indulge themselves in this story.

The second section, “Interlude”, moves to the first phase of a failing relationship. Her poems change drastically in length and topic. The length of her poems go from six-to-twelve lines to almost two pages. Her topics also change from happy and cheery to stories of characters struggling to get their significant other’s attention. These characters literally do anything to get their spouse’s attention and are satisfied momentarily with the small amounts. This reflects the poets longing for any kind of attention whether it’s physical or sexual in nature. These feelings are often felt when a relationship begins to decline, foreshadowing its untimely end.
The third section, “Finale”, covers the emotions that are felt after a breakup and during the time where you spend coping with the separation. Her poems are even shorter than before in the first section and have changed to somber and depressing topics. My favorite poem that she wrote in this sections was called “Pretext”:

"Our love—a dead star
To the world it burns brightly—
But it died long ago."

This poem, even though it is very short, is able to convey a huge message. Her topics that she relates her feelings to in this section are not typical descriptions that you hear every day and this enhances the readers understanding and gives a new perspective of how the poet felt. These creative analogies give her short poems more life in this low patch of her life, and this type of poem is repeated throughout the entire third section.
This collection of poems, although they are not your typical lullabies you would sing to a child at night, contain a large amount of emotion that the reader is able to empathize with. These stories are a powerful and relatable read for anyone who has gone through a rough breakup in their life.

Lang Leav striked again. The author was brilliant in writing poems that speaks the hearts of many people. You know that feeling of wanting to write about something but not finding the appropriate words for it and then you read something that speaks exactly of what you wanted to say? That was the kind of feel this book gave me. I just got the chills. I loved this book, it's like it spoke through my heart.

everything written in this book is just so so beautiful... the words touch so deeply in your heart and it's as if this book was written for you and for you only. I don't know if it's just me, but I felt connected to this book. I could read it a thousand times.