The exquisitely beautiful cover, and the enticing title persuaded me to pick up Toxic flora. Poems by Kimiko Hahn. However, her poetry in this collection was a disappointment.

The poems in this collection are written in free verse. The tone of most poems is harsh, lacking lyrical quality. The author has declared that she used the science section of the New York Times for inspiration, but reading the poems it seems as if she is a stranger to field of natural history, and has not sufficiently internalized the dynamic of the natural world. The poems therefore remain mechanical and lack passion.

In a broader sense, the poems do not seem to speak from the heart. In the balance, it seems frustrations are more prominent than the more usual emotions, such as love. Instead, it seems the author has appropriated the language of nature to express her own human frustrations.

Personally, I am not charmed by poetry with expletives, and the repeated use of fcuk and fcuk off. ( )

My interest in Hahn's Toxic Flora stems from my own obsession with the intersection of science & poetry. These are pleasing, well-crafted lyric poems. Nothing too adventurous in terms of form or language. Some interesting twists on insect cannibalistic mating habits & edgy mother-daughter relationships. ( )

I love what Hahn does in this collection; she takes science articles from newspapers and journals and writes poems inspired from those that catch her attention. These aren't just a reiteration of some of the facts she found fascinating, but reflections on these facts which she connects to the human experience and sometimes to her own life. The first half of the poems she has here tend to be scientific or factual; then they proceed to making a connection to human life as a whole or a personal experience. Her poems have a playful, yet meditative tone. Some recurring themes are the relationship between parents and daughters, mating and courtship, adaption and survival, and the impact humans have on nature. The natural imagery is beautiful and her lines pack a punch. You have to do a little research of course, to understand the scientific terms if you're not familiar with them, but that's alright; the articles are cited at the back of the book. ( )