I first received this book as a reward for academic excellence in high school. I tried to read it then and couldn’t get through it, but decided to give it another shot recently.

Read: June 8 – June 10, 2024

Genre: Poetry
Audience: General, Adult
Book contains: swearing

Purchase a copy from Amazon.ca

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Meditations for a Better Life

This poetry book is a collection of prose poems—meditations that Wagamese has written, sparked from his morning ritual and moments of stillness and gratitude.

I’m not Indigenous, but I can appreciate and respect differences in culture and practices. This book, while containing deeper meanings that probably went over my head a lot, still held value for me in the practice of being a better person. The ceremony is not my own, but the lessons are universal, and lots of things that Wagamese says in this book made me stop and reflect on my own life and how I live it.

The poetry is split into numerous sections, with themes like Stillness and Gratitude, and Harmony and Joy (but I won’t spoil them all). Wagamese takes the reader on a journey, using paragraphs and conversations and images of nature.

This book was great for a quiet weekend in while it was rainy and miserable outside. I sat down with a nice hot cup of tea, got comfortable, and read.

I think this book was beautifully designed. The pages are all glossy because some are full images, while others are simply full colour. Barely any of the pages are simply white with text. I also thought the cover was unique; it is a paperback, but the front cover folds over like a dust jacket.

This is an excellent book for lovers of reflective poetry, and also for people who wish to find more in their life—more love, more balance, more joy.

Other Poetry Reviews:

Inferno by Dante Alighieri
The Pin-Thief and the Sunflowers by Sofia Federova
*Maggot Dance by G.O. Kayode*
Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
*North Star Heart by Natasha Silva*
Embers by Richard Wagamese
Beowulf by unknown