Notes on Shapeshifting x Gabi Abrāo
Food for the soul
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Poetry, 2022
📖 80 Pages
Notes on Shapeshifting fell under a common Another Book Club theme, a much needed palette cleanser after a few titles on heavier topics that also happened to run on the longer side. Plus, there is nothing like a little poetry to start off summer. If I remember correctly, I learned about it from YouTuber Nathan’s Nook. It’s one of those rare moments I get a tangible reward for having something on in the background.
Though this collection of poems is short, it was no less enjoyable considering Abrāo’s knack for capturing complicated, familiar, and elusive moments delicately. It’s the kind of work that can embody words like sonder or petrichor without making you hit up Google.
Abrāo’s poems are, of course, centered on shapeshifting, which reveals itself as a more dynamic word than the overused “transformation” or “transition.” Whether the shapeshifting in question is a passage on heartbreak,
“I took over five grams of shrooms to get over a past lover, but then I didn't think of him once.”
or a seventeen step-by-step guide detailing the process of getting over heartbreak, there is tenderness and brevity, serious but not taking itself too seriously. There are funny stories, and there are stories steeped in melancholy. With poetry, its worth adding that while her structure or form isn’t consistent between pieces, her tone and delivery are.
Light like shadows of leaves dancing during golden hour and deep in the way the mind wanders as it watches shadows of leaves dancing during golden hour, Notes on Shapeshifting embodies the quintessential purity of a good summer read.