Who Knew? is an eloquent collection of poems that capture the emotion of a person at a moment in time in New York City’s history. Each poem is short but impactful. I was astonished to find that each poem conveys a deep meaning with so few works.

Each poem is evocative and captures the person’s strife and uncertainty all with a single sentence at the end of each poem, ‘Who knew?’ Each poem gives readers a glimpse at the life of someone who lived, or lives, in New York City; an immigrant, a slave, a police officer, a firefighter. I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was a test at the end, which asks the reader to guess who each poem was about. Before moving on to find the answers, I found myself flipping back through the poems one more time to try and find out who they might be about. This adds a lot of engagement to the poetry, and made me want to read the poems more than once.

Poetry readers will enjoy the potency of each poem, and casual readers will be able to easily pick this book up and complete it quickly because of the brevity of the poems. Anyone interested in New York City history will also find this poems fascinating as they are intriguing artistic glimpses of what it meant to be alive in New York City to different people at different times.

Pages: 17 | ASIN: B08V1SH4QH