Every Spring, by Sydney Shaffer

Poetry, chapbook, 32 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

Every Spring is Sydney Shaffer’s first poetry collection. It interweaves everyday life and magical happenings. This collection touches on the aspects of life people often oversee. Each poem is based on a person within Sydney’s life that she loves dearly. Through imagery and scenarios she writes about all of the little details of her favorite memories with them. Nothing is permanent but through words Sydney makes those specific moments and characteristics of it stay put forever.

Through self portrait poems, structured villanelles, sonnets, and experimental forms she paints a picture that comes to life to make the readers take a moment and feel all their feelings. In this collection there are mentions of historical figures like Emily Dickinson, Napoleon, Virginia Woolf, and Lilith to show that they once lived a marvelous life that could also be dissected and put into symbolic language.

The poems in Every Spring bring readers through various seasons of the year. This emulates that even during the darkest of winter days the spring will come and the flowers will bloom. Nothing is forever but through poetry and imagery Sydney shows that words on pages make those moments a memory that can last in a permanent space.

Through nature imagery and feelings of intense love for the people in her life, Sydney expresses the cycle of life and how to come to terms with it. At the end of the collection she hopes for readers to take a second in their day to cherish all they have. The people, the flowers, the weather on a rainy day, and the coffee they stop for every morning. Everything is something to be grateful for and through poetry Sydney can make sure it lasts forever.

Sydney Shaffer is a queer poet from South Brooklyn. She received her BA in Creative Writing from SUNY Purchase College in 2020. Her poetry intertwines everyday life with magical imagery. Sydney’s favorite poems to write are Villanelles. Currently, Sydney is a freelance writer for magazines and online journals. When Sydney is not writing you can find her snuggled up with her cat, drinking coffee, and reading a novel.