Title: Stars Can't Shine Without Darkness

Author:  loyaltybetrue

Status: Ongoing

Focus: Everything

Disclaimer: Because this is a poetry book with a variety of different poems I thought it would be best to speak about each poem separately so I numbered each poem and wrote my thoughts for each within the sections – “writing style” and “originality".

Title/ Cover (5/5)

The title is a poem within itself. A beautiful phrase that made me stop to think. Brilliant!

The cover is simple but effective. With beautiful warm colours and a wonderful contrast to the black silhouette. It reflects the concept within the title without being to in your face. I also love the fonts chosen they are clear and easily read, using a different font for the word “darkness" works really well.

Description (5/5)

Nice and honest. This description is short and to the point and executed wonderfully and clearly.

Grammar (3/5)

I noticed a few errors in your first poem but the majority of your collection was perfect.

Poem 1. The awaken light – “awaken" is a verb mainly used to communicate waking up in the future- “I will awaken...” in this line “awakened" would work better as the light has already woken up.

Fighting to entwined – tense swap mid line. Poem written in present tense “entwined" is past tense. “Entwine” would work better.

Typos found here and there in other poems but very few.

Writing style (4.5/5)

I liked the flow, the use of questions at the start was very effective. Then to follow these questions with expanding ideas on the concepts brought up was wonderfully drawn together. 

Underlining keywords was a nice touch. This poem painted a vivid picture of the sky when celebrating new year. Great work.

Written in a slightly different style, as if told by a mystical story-teller. Beautifully executed.

Nice flow, it read as if like a heart-felt letter to another.

I loved how this one is laid out- very pleasing to the eye. Taking a new line to help emphasise the emotion in the shorter lines was very affective.

The layout confused me a little – having the three words set apart seemed random and out of place. I think if you want to lay out your poem in this way the separate words should form a small sentence of their own to drive home the meaning of the poem.

Loved the layout of this poem – in the shape of a closed rosebud! Gorgeous! Beautiful work!

Again, I like how you laid this out. It reads as though a person is having a thought after a thought that keep falling out as this person, opening up, is desperate to get his feelings out.

Has a similar style to the previous poem. I was instantly reminded of the one I had just read which made this poem even more hard-hitting.

Acrostic poem! Easy and effective!

Another one! I love acrostic poems, there is no need to complicate things is there?

The style of this poem shares similarities with number 8 and 9. Beautifully written.

Starts off positive then one line makes me doubt everything! Very clever!

Acrostic poem!

Pleasing to the eye. Laid out beautifully as an anonymous letter. Well thought through.

The layout of this poem is genius. Asking a question, in italics. Exploring it. Repeating the question, again in italics then suggesting a way to think about the answer, in bold. Loved it.

Another gorgeous layout! I love how you separated each line. You obviously thought it through! It perfectly expresses the pain of feeling lost and betrayed.

Originality (4.5/5)

A beautiful concept to explore. Can light exist without having darkness to compare it to? Wonderful! 

Focusing on a single aspect of new year, the colourful sky, was a great idea!

An emotional piece. I felt so sorry for the “beast" and you managed to bring out such emotion in such a small amount of words. Impressive.

Making this poem reflect the book's title was a really nice touch! A reflection of light and darkness within a social situation. Very clever.

Emotional again. So many people have felt this way, me included, and such honesty is very powerful to read in poetry.

Beautiful word choice, describing beauty in nature and in kind feelings.

It was interesting to see the various concepts within a relationship that you paired up. I loved how you didn't go fully predictable – for example, “romance and jokes" this made me stop and think. You're right, jokes can be an opposite to romance, as romance is a serious thing. Creating poems that make the reader stop and think, shows a great talent in the poet!

So sad, so relatable, so honest.

This poem follows on beautifully after the one directly before it. Nice!

Never seen an acrostic poem with the word “great" before now. Was not disappointed!

I think I liked this one more than the “great" one. It was short and sweet and just beautiful.

 A poem about pain is painful to read. Very powerful writing!

A curve ball last line. It started off easing the reader into a sense of security then wham!

I wasn't as blown away by this one, to be honest. I don't think the poem fits the theme chosen for the acrostic. “Amazing, not" usually starts off as a positive phrase quickly followed by a fast and furious denial. It would've been cool if your poem followed that pattern. Have the “amazing" stanza seem like something positive then the “not" dragging it down.

Lovely. I like this poem. Again, so honest! The strengths found within the person being described are beautifully communicated.

Starting with a question and then exploring thoughts that it brings up. This was nicely executed. I liked that it indirectly answers the question for you at the end too.

So emotional. Heart-breaking, yet beautiful!

Overall (22/25)

I fabulous poetry collection full of emotion and beautiful concepts! With a little edit to polish things up you'll have a perfect masterpiece of a book there!

I hope my decision to structure my review this way is easy enough for you to follow. Thank you for asking me to review your wonderful poetry. I hope my feedback was helpful.