Kaleidoscopic Skies

by Ekta Daryani

These are the stars in your hands.
Turn them into constellations.
This book tells stories of the world, the night sky, storms, and light through the kaleidoscope that we call poetry.

Genres: Poetry

54 pages, Paperback

Published April 29, 2016

About the author

Ekta Daryani is a Pakistani-American poet based in the Bay Area and Baltimore. Her work emphasizes the concept of connection -- and how community has the power to heal.

Reviews

[Elsa Gomes (BookishAurora) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one was disappointing. Although it had beautiful imagery, I couldn't connect to it. I'm not even sure I understood what it was about, the metaphors were beautiful but the meaning behind them just wasn't clear to me. Maybe it was just me, who knows?!

[Jolien · Rating 2 out of 5]

This just didn't do anything for me. I didn't make me feel anything, or make me think about anything at all. It just left me uncaring. I know the author is really young, but I also know a lot of people love this collection. Maybe this just wasn't for me.

[Vanya Prodanova · Rating 2 out of 5]

Очаквах нещо различно. Може би аз не съм нормална, че очаквам от поезията да е разбираема, кой ти знае. Айде, ако не разумът ми да я разбере, то поне на несъзнавано / емоционално ниво да ме докосне. Мда, ама не и с тази стихосбирка. А е толкова красива, толкова обещаващо примамлива. :/
Е, имаше два-три реда, които бяха много красиви, но два-три реда не правят цяла стихосбирка. Повечето стихове за мен не следваха никаква логика, бяха напълно лишени от смисъл. Случайни думи събрани на едно място с етикет "поезия". Да не коментирам, че ако някои думи са толкова сложни, че и на родния ти език да им се чудиш какво значат - не е на добре. Явно, не съм пораснала достатъчно за "възвишената" поезия.

[Faith · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stars, astronomy and astrology are hugely important to me, and I love modern poetry. So finding a collection of modern poetry that entwines these things delighted me.

I adore Daryani's use of imagery, there's a lot of interpreting to be done and metaphorical meaning to take. I love the way she seamlessly blended stars, planets, and the sea with emotions so they all represented one-another way.

My only problem is, there are a lot of uncommon, overcomplicated words thrown in. I love learning new words from books but they really broke the flow. It felt like Daryani tried to use a thesaurus any chance she could, (which, admit it, we all do when writing), but it wasn't fun to have to pause every two seconds to look up what words like aussage and compendium meant.

My favourite poems from this book are:

LOCKS on page 3
IGNITE on page 5
DREAMERS on page13
SOUND on page 16
REFLECTIONS on page 22
COMING HOME on page 23
SUPERNOVA on page 24
and AFTERMATH on page 25

[sof ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a good debut for this young author, some poems were very nice.

[Karine]

I didn't understand a single poem out of 25 pages

[Charlotte Clementine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't get past the feeling that there is a lack of authenticity here.
Thankfully there are also true moments of beauty, so I'll choose to remember those.

[emily 🪴 · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a beautiful debut! I loved this little book of poetry so much. Everything about it was so lovely. Everybody should definitely read this.

[Maylin Y N · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pretty complex poems

[Fay · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Imagery was strong, but it did nothing for me. This felt like the author was trying too hard to connect and totally missed the mark.

[im_just_vidu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe this just wasn't for me

[Corona Australis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short and. beautiful

[Sara.13 · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.75⭐️
This is a very promising collection; there are some sentences that are very clever and beautiful and impressive, and some others (most of them) that I found too inscrutable and hard to understand. However, I would like to read more by this author and see how her writing style and skills evolve.

[Sofia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A little collection of poems from a teenager that knows how to speak to other people of the same age or just to the young yourself that everyone still have in their heart. The simple editing leaves all the colours to the words perfectly used and the beautiful scenes depicted. Some of the poems touched deeply my soul and I'll probably remember some of them, word by word, after years from the first reading.

[Morrígan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bought this book years ago but I still clearly remember thinking I had paid way too much for it.

[Maddie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an easy to read poetry book but It didn’t really hit me.

[Johanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

just beautiful. totally worth reading 🌌

[El · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes I just like a poetry book with big magical words talking about space and nothing at all.