Watery Eyes: Reflections of a Muslim Woman, by Yerusalem Work, is a wide-ranging collection of poems that moves through faith, womanhood, identity, memory, grief, and tenderness. It blends personal history with spiritual reflection and cultural pride. The book shifts from intimate whispers to big declarations, sometimes soft as prayer and sometimes sharp as truth. The themes that repeat across its many pages feel like a heartbeat. Love. Loss. Devotion. A soul trying to stay steady in a world that keeps testing it.

As I read, I felt pulled into the author’s inner world. Her writing is warm and direct, and I found myself pausing often just to sit with an image or a line. She talks about faith in a way that feels lived rather than taught, and that honesty hit me hard. I kept feeling this mix of ache and comfort. Some poems feel like opening a window after a long night. Others feel like stepping into a memory that isn’t mine, yet somehow rings familiar. Her voice rises and sinks, and I liked that the rhythm never stays still. It mirrors real emotion. Messy, surprising, sometimes contradictory. The work feels confident and vulnerable at the same time.

There were moments when the ideas felt bigger than the poem holding them, but I didn’t mind. I actually liked the looseness. It gave the book a raw edge. I loved how she writes about Ethiopia and womanhood and faith as if they’re woven into the same cloth, each thread tugging on the next until the whole thing glows. Some pieces felt playful, some mournful, and others almost like confessions. The writing invited me to consider my own ideas of belonging and purpose.

I would recommend Watery Eyes to readers who enjoy poetry that comes straight from the heart. It’s a good fit for people who like reflective writing, spiritual searching, and stories rooted in identity and culture. It would also speak to anyone who has ever carried love and loss in the same breath. This is a book for readers who want to feel close to another person’s inner life and who appreciate writing that is sincere, emotional, and alive.

Pages: 167 | ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0G6WHMTZ8