I am by no means an easy reviewer, and poetry, in particular, which I consider being soul-musings (or spirit vomit if you will — and I mean that in the best way possible), is never a simple thing to review. From My Eye to The Sky by J.V. Sadler is no different.

Sadler is a writer; there is no doubt about that. Only a writer can produce raw and authentic pieces that pull you deep into them, allowing you to view the world through their lens. From the moment I read the introduction and began to dive into Sadler's pieces, I felt this, and I felt overwhelmed by the depth and transparency of their pieces.

But, for a few pieces, I began to feel quite tangled and energetically overwhelmed by Sadler's words. While Sadler does write in one of their poems that they wish to create raw and messy poetry that isn't pretty, I found myself pulling out the sage after a few!

I was most especially turned off by Sadler's poem Palestine on my mind, which glorifies the genocidal atrocities of October 7th against innocent Israelis by calling it a "Revolution," especially considering that Sadler spent so much of the first poems condemning (rightfully so) the slave trade of Africans and colonization. Unfortunately, this poem made the collection lose a star.

Sadler is very much aware that language tells you who the colonizer is, as they write about this in the poem Your Language. You can tell who colonized the world by how many countries outside the mother country speak a mother tongue. English is the best example of this for British colonization — French the second. Arabic is the third best example of this. No other country other than Israel speaks Hebrew as a mother tongue; Israelis are not colonizers. Genocidal murder is not a revolution. Sadler is taking on the plight of the wrong team.

It is also shocking that Sadler would ignore that black people are treated as second-class citizens in Palestinian territories and that the Arabian Slave Trade of Africans was far greater and lasted far longer (1,300 years) than those organized by the "white man," (4oo years). Perhaps Sadler, in an attempt to "liberate" themselves from so many "isms" and "phobias" (which I found incredibly inspiring to read in the introduction), also liberated themselves from the discernment that comes from taking up people's hate as your own; especially when they don't really care about your struggles and rights, and were involved in your ancestral pain and persecution.

And maybe that's where Sadler's poems don't sit well with me. Anyone group asking you to carry their hate is essentially a cult. I wish to feel Sadler's pain and authentic expression of their existence and Truth without being forced to carry it against my will.

That being said, Sadler is talented—the form, structure, and movement in their poetry were admirable—and many poems hit me deep in my heart center, while many made me uncomfortable. Sadler's Truth is still valid, as is their experience and expression of this experience, but a few poems were too energetically chaotic for me to consume safely. Ultimately, maybe that's Sadler's point.