As I said in my review last Monday, I always like doing what I can to help writers promote their work. A couple of weeks ago, I was approached by a couple of poets via Instagram offering me the chance to read their latest poetry collections. As someone who is always trying to read more contemporary poetry, I readily agreed. This Sunday, after having a small issue with Amazon, I sat down to read The Daylight Plays Tricks on Us by Julieanne Hoffmann. I hadn’t planned to finish it in one go but that’s exactly what happened.

The Daylight Plays Tricks on Us is a poetry collection that explored the duality of humanity. We all experience light and dark through our life and it’s important to understand the balance between the two. We all go through grief, heartbreak, self-doubt, and anxiety. Yet, we also find love, adventure, freedom, and self-discovery. The lightness and darkness of the human experience coexist and cannot exist without the other. We wouldn’t feel loss so keenly if we didn’t feel love.

In her poetry collection, Julieanna Hoffmann switches between night and day as she comes to terms with her mixed feelings. The collection starts with the darkness of her mother’s death and her feelings of deep despair and loss. We next leap forward to her love, her anxiety, and her travel adventures. The format of the collection shows us how easily our mind’s move from happiness to sadness. It perfectly showcases how quickly a person can move from self-doubt to self-awareness, from fear to bravery, and from despair to hope.

This is a poetry collection that speaks to contemporary society. The feelings expressed in this collection will be familiar to all Millennials and Gen X’ers. The discussion of mental health is more important than ever and many people are turning to creativity to work through their feelings. In doing so, they are also starting conversations and helping their readers understand more about themselves. I can see that fans of poets like Rupi Kaur and Amanda Lovelace will enjoy this collection and take a lot away from the ideas here.

Hoffman manages to balance the positive and negative feelings in such a way that makes life seem manageable. No matter how dark the night may be, the morning will always return. All we need is the strength to get through it and the morning light will bring new hope. The fact that the collection ends in the morning leaves readers looking forward to the future. The collection doesn’t shy away from the tragedies of human existence but it makes sure to end on a note of hope. Something that will help many readers who are dealing with their own battles.