5 out of 5 stars

Scribbles, Rhymes, and Lima Beans by Rachael Waldburger is a poignant poetry collection that is divided into three parts. Per the author’s note at the beginning, Scribbles is about life and love; Rhymes is about writing, art, and inspiration; and Lima Beans is about growth and renewal. However, there is so much more to be found and recognized throughout this collection.

The poetry of Scribbles describes a nostalgic love the author has for her grandparents and a past crush, and the act of falling in love. In what becomes a theme tying together all three collections, Waldburger also gives us the first hint of divisiveness and dichotomy. Her first poem, The Wall, gives us a stark, yet short, literal description of the purpose of all walls—to bear the weight of division. The next few poems, “Lying on My Back in October,” “Raspberries,” “Running,” and “Old Crush,” seem to represent life and the wonder of love in its different forms and the hope it carries within. The following poems, “Argument,” “Realization,” “Wild-Grown,” and “Wolf” describe life and the lack of love and all that comes along with that emptiness. The rest of this section rotates between this dichotomy of what happens when love is present (and the idea of growth is introduced) and when love is absent due to ineptitude or just losing the very people we love dearly. Two of my favorite poems describing finding love in this section are “Knight Errant” and “Tilting at Windmills.”

The poetry of the second section, Rhymes, takes the themes Waldburger has introduced us to in Scribbles and expands on those while exploring writing, art, and inspiration. She deftly explores learning the rules of poetry and breaking them, rhyming (though most of the poems in this section do not adhere to conventional rhyming schemes), and the art of writing poetry. She tells (naming art pieces, constellations, and poets) and shows us what inspires her words and how those words find their way to the page. One of the most nostalgic poems for me in this section, “Poetry Purrs,” appears to show inspiration from E. E. Cummings and Carl Sandburg. This poem reminded me of the eighth grade when I began to fall in love with poetry. Carl Sandburg was my introduction, and suddenly I felt transported back to little cat feet.

Honestly, before reading the last section, I wasn’t sure about lima beans being about growth and renewal, other than I had to grow to like them as an adult. However, Waldburger, being the descriptive writer she is, shows us how to connect lima beans and growth in a comforting way. She transports us through the seasons of life, the plans we make while filled with uncertainty and hope, and plans realized as she becomes a mother. The poems in this section are longer and filled with more contemplative language than the previous two sections. She also continues the dichotomy of love that is present and love that is absent. And in the penultimate poem from which this collection is named, we find how lima beans and growth are connected. I will leave this discovery for you.

Overall, this poetry collection is well thought out. The overall theme that brings the collection together is not only evident in the poems themselves; my paperback edition has poems of differing points of view facing one other across the binding. There is a natural ebb and flow of life, love, and loss throughout that begs me to pick it up once again to see what I missed in the first read-through.

I received a complimentary copy from the author. This review is honest and voluntary.