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Mistakes Were Made: A Poetry Collection

Juliette Sebock (Goodreads Author)

4.27 · Rating details · 11 ratings · 6 reviews

Mistakes Were Made is the debut poetry collection of Juliette Sebock. Written over years of watching the world around her, the poems compiled here examine love, loss, mistakes made, and lessons learned. This chapbook brings together poems about trauma, about love, and the moments in between. It takes a look at the mistakes we make throughout life, how we react to them, and ...more

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Chapbook, 30 pages

Published July 4th 2017 by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

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Jan 18, 2019 Kimberly rated it it was amazing

Mistakes Were Made: A Poetry Collection by Juliette E. Sebock is a moving collection of works all brimming with emotion. I like emotional or dark stories and poems. To me, many of the poems conjured up feelings of loss or betrayal so the overall theme of the collection as I perceived it was right up my alley.

There are 22 poems in this collection. Most of the poems are very short, so they were quick little morsels of the author’s heartcries (dare I say - short enough to memorize and take with Mistakes Were Made: A Poetry Collection by Juliette E. Sebock is a moving collection of works all brimming with emotion. I like emotional or dark stories and poems. To me, many of the poems conjured up feelings of loss or betrayal so the overall theme of the collection as I perceived it was right up my alley.

There are 22 poems in this collection. Most of the poems are very short, so they were quick little morsels of the author’s heartcries (dare I say - short enough to memorize and take with you? :)). I found myself sometimes taking a break in my busy day to take in a few of these poems to give me something to ponder.

I am a very literal person, so when I read poems I tend to try to visualize an exact situation, object, etc. that the author is trying to describe. It is hard for me to relax into poetry because I am so literal and want a specific picture painted for me, but Juliette’s poems expertly convey a feeling, an event or an object in a way that is both esoteric and relatable for me. She brought to life feelings and emotions that I and many other people have felt at one time or another.

I think my favorite poem is Ghost. It is a haunting poem that can refer to ghosts of this world or ghosts of our memories. My second favorite poem is Lexicon - brief, sweet, and loving. Poetry of Silence was another one I liked.

There were just a few poems that were beyond my grasp, like I couldn’t quite catch the meaning (which is fine because I think with any story or poem, the written word is a tool to articulate something that doesn’t need to be understood by the reader in a literal sense). These poems were Regent and Fracture(s)(d).

I’ve read more poetry in the past year than I probably read in the 10 years before that. Reading poetry has been a refreshing challenge, one I’ve avoided for far too long. I used to be frustrated by the inability to define exactly what is being conveyed, but what I’m learning is that it’s not so much about the exact details of the author's inspiration behind the poem - it’s the feeling you have while reading it. These poems did a great job of making me feel something. If you’re looking for some words to soothe your soul a bit and make you feel less alone, pick up Mistakes Were Made. ...more

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May 01, 2019 Keana Labra rated it it was amazing

We each have an outlet: an activity we reflexively rely on to curb any emotional or mental distress at any given time. Writers have used their words to share and reflect on these instances with either regret or acceptance; but rarely, do we get to read a collection charged with emotion and turmoil presented so cohesively and elegantly. Juliette Sebock’s Mistakes Were Made is a raw illustration of a dark period in her life. She takes chaos and transforms it with succinct, beautiful language. She ...more

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May 15, 2019 Ally rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The best poetry is the kind that appears to the reader like a mirror: everything about yourself is reflected in the pages and lines of gut-wrenching emotion. Mistakes Were Made is that mirror.

Simply put, I thoroughly enjoyed this poetry collection. There are poems in these pages that I would've sworn I wrote myself because of the emotions universal to us all: heartbreak, the pursuit of love, and a young person navigating the throes of life. As a young woman around the age of the poet, I especial The best poetry is the kind that appears to the reader like a mirror: everything about yourself is reflected in the pages and lines of gut-wrenching emotion. Mistakes Were Made is that mirror.

Simply put, I thoroughly enjoyed this poetry collection. There are poems in these pages that I would've sworn I wrote myself because of the emotions universal to us all: heartbreak, the pursuit of love, and a young person navigating the throes of life. As a young woman around the age of the poet, I especially found these poems resonant and relevant to my recent life changes, finding a refreshing and cathartic take on things I've long thought of cyclically.

To read Sebock's poetry is to immerse yourself in an understanding of one's heart. The raw emotion is displayed in lines and stanzas beautifully and meticulously written, with syllables flowing into one another and sprinkled with rhymes that keep the mind attentively reading. The content engages the reader for the multiple re-reads to which each poem lends itself, short and sweet and able to be consumed all at once in quick succession or read one at a time in between pauses; either way, you get what you needed when you sought out this poetry. The overall effect is the most personal journal you could ever write for yourself, eloquently pre-written for convenience.

Some of my favorite lines in the entire collection are from "Untasted" for how skeletal the words made me feel after I read them: "She is gingerbread and cinnamon/And a million things left unsaid. She is life. She is death. Everything in between." Amazing poetry comes from powerful words, and those, my friends, are words I will not soon be forgetting or hearing in my head over and over.

My absolute favorite line, though, is from "And Wherefore?" because it was as if Sebock captured the last couple years or so of my life. It's a line that absolutely everyone who has ever loved someone, had their heart broken, their hope shattered, or their lives changed forever, has felt. "Who's crazy,/The one who went through hell/Or the one who put her there."

When someone else articulates your feelings, there is no hiding; there is no other option but honesty. That is what Sebock offers the reader. You may not know the exact inspiration of each poem, but you know why it speaks to you specifically, and whether you're thinking of an event, a memory, a person, or a delicate combination of all three, Sebock gently shows you with her poetry collection that even though mistakes were made, she--and the reader--are that much stronger for admitting it. Poetry reminds us we're not alone in anything we feel; beyond that, Sebock's Mistakes Were Made reminds us there is always someone who understands the depths of who we truly are. ...more

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Mar 13, 2019 Stu Buck rated it really liked it

Mistakes Were Made is a powerful collection of poetry that focuses on love, relationships and the pressures these can force on us, causing us to make mistakes in our life and the lives of others. It is extremely well written throughout and at times packs a real punch. These are not just standard love poems but poems that acknowledge the dirty side to being a human and needing companionship. Nothing in life is perfect, and very often it can be troubled and stressful. But there are moments that ma ...more

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Apr 07, 2019 Isabelle rated it liked it · review of another edition

A new voice on the poetry scene

Imagery of food and of animals, popping up in the spaces where words were difficult, were both interesting choices. 'Squirrel Song' and 'Trigger' were my favourites.
Metaphors of princesses and knives verged on cliqué and lost some authenticity of voice and the throughline of the collection wasn't always clear.
I enjoyed reading Sebock's collection and look forward to more work by her! ...more

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Nov 01, 2019 Tucker rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A small collection of short poems on bad-apple relationships and lonelinesses. One of the most intriguing poems was "Regent." It's like the outline of a complex fairy tale in very few words. "The princess offers up her castle, / Offers up her throne, / But the maiden turns her down." ...more

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About Juliette Sebock

Juliette Sebock

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Juliette Sebock is the author of Mistakes Were Made (2017), Micro (Nightingale & Sparrrow Press, 2019), How My Cat Saved My Life and Other Poems (Bottlecap Press, 2019), Three Words (Bottlecap Press, 2020), Plight of the Pangolin (Vociferous Press, 2020), and Boleyn (TwistiT Press, 2020), as well as several books currently searching for the perfect press.

She has poems forthcoming or appearing in Juliette Sebock is the author of Mistakes Were Made (2017), Micro (Nightingale & Sparrrow Press, 2019), How My Cat Saved My Life and Other Poems (Bottlecap Press, 2019), Three Words (Bottlecap Press, 2020), Plight of the Pangolin (Vociferous Press, 2020), and Boleyn (TwistiT Press, 2020), as well as several books currently searching for the perfect press.

She has poems forthcoming or appearing in a wide variety of publications, including Royal Rose, Marías at Sampaguitas, Brave Voices Magazine, Poetry24, Mookychick, Cauldron Anthology, Neologism, Anti-Heroin Chic, Vamp Cat Magazine, Elephants Never, Green Light Lit, October Hill Magazine, Peeking Cat Poetry, Quatrain.fish, Ghost City Review, Blanket Sea, The Cabinet of Heed, PHEMME, the She Will Speak series, Selcouth Station, Wellington Street Review, Paper Trains Literary Journal, The Ginger Collect, Memoir Mixtapes, Foliate Oak, Mojave He(art), Ravens in the Attic, Cephalopress, Pop! Goes My Heart, Chachalaca Review, Pennsylvania Bards: An Anthology of Poetry by Northeastern Pennsylvania Poets, Black Bough Poetry, Kissing Dynamite Poetry, Twist in Time, salt + vinegar, Neon Mariposa, Reclaim: An Anthology of Women's Poetry, A Tudor Writing Circle, Headcanon Magazine, Fevers of the Mind Poetry & Art Digest, War Crimes Against the Uterus, Collective Unrest, Bonnie's Crew, Thimble Literary Magazine, Pixel Heart Literary Magazine, Barren Magazine, Mid-Heaven Magazine, Young Ravens Literary Review, The /temz/ Review, Knight's Library Magazine, Eye Flash Poetry, Picaroon Poetry, Three Drops from a Cauldron, The Hellebore, Shut Down Strangers & Hot Rod Angels, and Taco Bell Quarterly, Crêpe & Penn, The Mighty, and Re-Side Zine.

She is the founding editor of Nightingale & Sparrow, runs a lifestyle blog, An Ideal Life, and is a regular contributor with Marías at Sampaguitas, Memoir Mixtapes, and The Poetry Question. Currently, she is working on a variety of personal and freelance projects.

When she isn't writing (and sometimes when she is), Juliette can be found with a cup of coffee and her cat, Fitz.

Juliette can be reached at her website (juliettesebock.com) or across social media @juliettesebock. ...more