Always Something Heartfelt by Ashton Harper

A soul-baring collection of melancholy poetry, Always Something Heartfelt by Ashton Harper dives into the poet’s complex journey through desire, romance, and heartbreak.

Harper’s poetry swings from pleading and passionate appeals to broken and bitter reflections, anecdotal memories captured in nostalgic verse, and off-the-cuff pushbacks against unwanted emotions. The poetry matures as the book progresses, expanding into ponderings of negative energy, selfishness, regret, personal responsibility, and mental liberation, but the undercurrent ideas of intimacy and an existential quest for love is consistent. Versatile in tone, form, and energy, Harper is a gritty poet who revels in vulnerable confession.

From a technical perspective, this primarily free-verse collection isn’t bound by the sing-song of rigid rhyme schemes, but the lack of other poetic devices does leave many verses feeling somewhat flat. Without a degree of assonance, consonance, structured meter, or lyrical language, many of the pieces read like lists of musings and questions in basic prose formatted into verse. The overarching theme of the collection is love found, lost, and suffered over, but this narrow focus also leads to some repetitive pieces and themes.

Despite a few rough edges, this is a raw and visceral outpouring of emotional poetry that will resonate with readers who recognize the unique pains that love can bring.

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