Name: Space Struck
Rating: 3.8125 (24 reviews)
ISBN: 9781946448446

Paige Lewis

This glowing debut explores the wonders and cruelties occurring within nature, science, and religion. Its poems pulse like starlight.

Space Struck

sage lynn

belong in this space with me, getting fingerprints / all over my glossy animals, then we’ll journey / until we find the world in which we both fit. 

And when the path grows too dark to see even / the bright parts of me, have faith in the sound / of my voice. I’m here. I’m still the one leading.

from “the terre haute planetarium rejected my proposal”

as everyone else, the place where / people take and the taking becomes / its own person. Where everyone hurts 

and gets hurt, and the hurt can be heard / asking the same question—Why isn’t anybody 

stopping this? And the powerfully worse take / a vote, they elect their answer carefully: / Stopping what?

This astonishing, self-assured debut leads us on an exploration to the stars and back, begging us to reconsider our boundaries of self, time, space, and knowledge. The speaker writes, “...the universe/is an arrow/without end/and it asks only one question;/How dare you?” Zig-zagging through the realms of nature, science, and religion, one finds St. Francis sighing in the corner of a studio apartment, tides that are caused by millions of oysters “gasping in unison,” an ark filled with women in its stables, and prayers that reach God fastest by balloon. There’s pathos: “When my new lover tells me I’m correct to love him, I/realize the sound isn’t metal at all. It’s not the coins rattling/ on concrete, but the fingers scraping to pick them up.” And humor, too: “...even the sun’s been sighing Not you again/when it sees me.” After reading this far-reaching, inventive collection, we too are startled, space struck, our pockets gloriously “filled with space dust.”

I wish I had a word better than whimsy; there is so much delightful and heart-tugging surprise in Lewis’ writing. In this book, they explore the scale of human-ing in a way that feels epic in its storytelling. 

geleisa

the collection is broken into sections. i liked the second section a lot but wasn’t overly attached to the first or third. sometimes it felt like the poet was so focused on form that other craft elements fell to the wayside. there were moments that were really really good but also ones that were just kind of meh

Molly M

charisa

me? reading poetry? unheard of. i can’t claim to understand anything about poetry or paige lewis’ absurd tangents, but i’m slowly realizing it’s less about understanding and more about listening, absorbing, holding. 

so i’m holding onto these banger lines: 

“I just hope I’m forgiven for the nights I 
spend on the fire escape, untying this city’s prayers
long enough to hear the first few words. Each one
starts the same—Make this mine, Lord. Make this mine.”

“Tell me, how do I steady my gaze
when everything I want is motion?”

“Do they still
count, these hours I’ve spent on my
own? Do they still count if I’m saving
all of my shiniest thoughts for you?”

Jamieson

really liked this collection! Will definitely need to give it another listen through

juno

elif sinem

delightful collection, especially whenever love and devotion were the topic. just beautiful words and images strung together which made for a really dreamy read.

always, annej 〄

Space Struck is a poetry book that tackles circumstances of a normal person who happened to weave poems with astronomy. It was not like the usual poetry books that I've read which talked more about just the emotional parts of life. Space Struck is wonderful in a way that it is unique. If you'll read this, you'll be transported into outer space while still able to breathe not just air but life itself. Readers will get to see their own selves in the poet's shoes trying to enjoy life as much as she wanted to survive it. It's great that it has a touch of space. As a science-enthusiast myself, I've seen how the world had changed because of our destructions as humans. Life is not just all about us, people, but life is also about being aware of our surroundings. After all, what the old quote always reminds us is true: no man is an island. We're all here for a reason and clearly, that reason is not to destroy. Space Struck is perfect for poetry lovers like me who is always seeking for new and unique voices. Listening to its audiobook version will heighten the experience. It was as if you're watching a live spoken word poetry performance.

Molly Rae Stacy

Best line, “I’m the vice president of panic and the president is missing.”

Very engaging collection.

Sofia Blomqvist Rytters

im giving it a preliminary 2.5 because my head is telling me i like it but im too tired to understand the reasons why so a reread is due

Space Struck

Reviews

Highlights