Delirious Disquisitions's Reviews > Rooms of the Mind

I received this arc from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rooms of the Mind is my first foray into Mackenzie Campbell's contemporary poetry. I went in fully expecting this to be more less similar to the kind of over hyped contemporary poems I’ve recently come across such as Milk and Honey, or The Smallest of Bones, etc. I found myself pleasantly surprised when this collection turned out to be a cut above these earlier examples: it was more, and in some ways, it was less.

Campbell’s writing is more substantial than most contemporary poetry which tends to emphasize style over content. While her poems appear to follow the same superficial conventions, everything from the grammar, diction, punctuation feel very deliberate. The format is an amalgamation of various styles, with some poems written in free verse forms, some following a rhyme scheme, while others read like streams of consciousness ripe with metaphors; certain emotions are personified and evolve with each progressive appearance lending the collection a sense of cohesiveness.

The poems themselves are divided into 6 rooms or chapters: In Lonely, In Fear, In Heartbreak, In Nostalgia, In Love, and In Hope. The concept behind this format is that the human brain compartmentalizes different emotions, feelings, experiences, and fears into separate rooms within the mind in order to make sense of them. In the same vein, this collection is Campbell’s attempt at revisiting these emotions.

Each chapter is also accompanied by a simple illustration of a door front to help conceptualize the state of mind each door represents. While the illustrations don't add much to the actual content, they are a cute visual representation of the themes or motifs that populate each feeling.

Below is a summation of my thoughts on each chapter, the accompanying illustration, and the themes mentioned:

1. In Lonely: Water under the door and grass growing to signify stagnant growth or passage of time.

Themes: Depression, suicide, missing an ex lover, death, grief, abandonment issues, toxic relationships, sexual assault, pessimism, over-thinning, etc.

Note: When you’ve lived with your loneliness long enough, at some point it becomes almost comforting to be one with that familiar feeling of loneliness, grief, and pain; you’re too tired to move on and feel something new.

2. In Fear: Bolted door for fear of letting your thoughts out.

Themes: toxic or manipulative relationships, sexual assault, rape, abuse, violence, non-binary or gender fluid identity, indecisiveness, fear of decision making, abandonment, commitment, love, insecurities, new relationships, new love, breakups, etc.

Note: Fear of not recognizing the person that you've become. Stuck in a sort of purgatory between what you were versus who you want to be. Yet another kind of stasis. Rooted to the present for fear of the unknown future.

3. In Heartbreak: Wilting flowers in need of water

Themes: breakup, heartbreak, memories, missing an ex, etc.

Note: sometimes heartbreak can be an insidious, creeping feeling, almost like a parasite invading your home and eating away at you till there's nothing left but the pain and heartache in place of empty memories.

4. In Nostalgia: Toys at the entrance, missing the simpler times.

Themes: the absence of things, nostalgia, hindsight is 20/20, memories of past relationships, heartbreak, breakups, etc.

Note: basically can be summed up by the one Taylor Swift lyric, “I always felt I must look better in the rear view/ Missing me. At the golden gates they once held the keys to.”

5. In Love: Door with the nameplate of the happy couple, a welcoming mat ushering you into a new relationship.

Themes: new love, happy memories, separation anxiety, fear of breakups, etc.

Note: Some of the imagery tries to capture the feeling of a love so grand, so cosmic that it can't possibly be contained. While others talk about the small things in love, the minuscule details of everyday life, the many small chance events that lead up to this moment.

6. In Hope: New plants on the doorstep promising new growth

Themes: healing, growing, learning to move on, leaving a toxic or one sided relationship, acceptance that all pain is temporary, optimism that out of this we can learn and grow, hope for a better future, catharsis, independence, self love, etc.

Note: I was having a good time when this one poem completely took me out of the narrative. When she says, “the only one holding you back is YOU” it suddenly took me back to that one disastrous appointment when my therapist said the same thing when I told her my anxiety was stopping me from doing things. I knew this, what else is new??
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As a whole, Campbell’s poetry collection is a step above some of the more shallow contemporary poems in terms of cohesiveness and content.

In some ways, this poetry collection feels very personal, like it originated out of that very specific feeling of insecurity, anxiety, depression, and loneliness that follows a very painful breakup and her journey of acceptance and healing. But that is not to say that they don't make sense individually or that it is not relatable.

The poems are evocative with its strong imagery, syntax, and distinct metaphors particularly in the first half of the collection. Especially memorable is the personification of Anxiety as a tyrant, forcefully invading the landscape of the mind in which the self is a tenant; as such you're constantly at war with yourself. As the poems progress, so too does Anxiety. Evolving into an unwelcome neighbor dropping by unannounced at the most inconvenient of times and refusing to leave. It is in playing around with metaphors and motifs that Campbell truly shines.

The poems are their weakest in its repetitive themes of love, breakups, and heartache. I found those a little tedious to read, and a little cliched, but this is a purely personal preference. Moreover, it bothered me that the poems start strong and build up the momentum with some strong imagery, only to fizzle out towards the end in a very anticlimactic manner. It took away from some of her strongest poems, and I hope that’s something her other poems improve on.

All in all, Rooms of the Mind is one of my more favorite poetry collections amongst those I've read in recent times and I look forward to exploring some of Campbell's other poems. 3.5 stars.