Upile Chisala’s latest book of poetry, “a fire like you,” was stupendous! It was full of short micropoems on self-love, lust, love and loss, grief, relationships, and family. It is broken out into four sections: Wound, Hunger, Swoon, Sister. Most poems are only a few lines long but they are deeply felt. You can feel the pain, the longing, the emotion behind the words. There is real desire and passion caught in the few lines that connects with your heart.

Ms. Chisala is a black Malawian woman that has been through many difficult life experiences, which tries to relay to the reader. There is a depth in her writing despite many of her poems consisting of fewer than twenty words. What I found to be most inspiring in this book was her poetry on empowerment. The poems that focused on taking care of yourself and not looking for a partner or spouse to take care of you. There definitely is some benefit of having a partner to care for you when you cannot care for yourself, but that should be the exception and not the rule.

I thought that this was a splendid new collection that any fan of poetry should go out and get when it is released this week on March 10, 2020.

I received this eBook free of charge from Andrews McMeel Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. I did not receive any fiscal compensation from either company for this review and the opinions expressed herein are entirely my own.