“Wildly quirky, musical, and honest to the bone, the lyrical narratives of Candice Kelsey’s CHOOSE YOUR OWN POEM unfold with ease and stunning clarity: Who hears/your songs echo from lost Alabama factories producing/White Owl cigars for the working man, sweet blend of five/varied nations? Resolutions to existentialist quandaries in the book are offered by way of contrasting laugh-out-loud options: If you’re tired of being hunted, Kelsey says in her instructions after the poem, “The Most Dangerous Game,” turn to page 12 // If you think you can write better than this poet, turn to the next page. In other poems, she delves into the inner workings of the psyche giving us insights into our own foibles. Hands down, Choose Your Own Poem, marks one of the best new collections I’ve read. ”

“Candice Kelsey’s highly inventive, sobering, beautiful and remarkable collection CHOOSE YOUR OWN POEM is a triumph. This poetic homage to the Choose Your Own Adventure narratives reinvents what it means to read poetry. The juxtaposition of poems is now partly in the hands of the reader: you are delighted to find yourself rereading a poem in a new way and you choose to do so again and again. Do you keep reading? Do you revel in the dark and sophisticated joy Candice has built here? Yes and Yes. Now turn back to page 1.”

“Choose Your Own Poem’s deceptively light-hearted premise drops you with a thud into the darkness; each decisively crafted poem asks you to either accept your demise or to, as the author puts it, “cut from the night what’s coming for your throat.” Kelsey’s poetic prowess is demonstrated through these poems that both comfort and confront the reader. She, at times, uses this clever and cogent collection as a medium to juxtapose the concepts of sovereignty and suffocation but, more often, she reminds us of their surprising similarities. This demonstrated ability to sabotage the reader, to leave their fate hanging in the balance while still maintaining their trust, is a superlative skill “which, like verbal rhythm, can’t be taught.”

“Generally speaking, two things are true: the first is that, more often than not, reading poetry is only an incidentally tailored experience. It is often a portrayal, a glance through the lens of someone else’s worldview, a sometimes-brief, sometimes-brutal game of chance wherein both the writer and the reader hope that something that belongs to them catches with the other like little sticks kindling a fire pit. Maybe it’s a piece of their own experience, a shard of memory, a bridge connecting them and the author. Maybe it’s appreciation for the craft, for being gifted a moment where you think to yourself, “Wow, that’s cool as hell.” But the fire doesn’t kindle that way every time, so the reader pours through glue-bound verses and waits for the spark to ignite. It will always ignite, but not for every reader and not all at once.
The other true thing? There really is no absolute truth in creative expression, and it’s there that we find Choose Your Own Poem by Candice M. Kelsey.

If you, like myself, were a precocious and avid library patron in your middle school years, you may be familiar with the format. A certain YA series that cannot be named (I have heard from multiple sources that they are very litigious) allowed the reader to select from plot point options and treat themselves to the ending they wanted or thought they wanted. Candice has brought this adventure back in verse but tailored it to an introspective adult audience, weaving pathways through common experience with your choice of gutting, aching turns of phrase. The decisions you make throughout this book don’t always lead you to the outcome you want, but they will lead you to one that is shared, described eloquently or angrily, and is undoubtedly coming right for your throat (as the author has alluded to.)

This collection’s only rule is that there are no rules; the one exception is that you must begin at the beginning. Kicking it off with a bang is The Cave of Misogyny, or Tips to Improve the Sex Lives of Christian Husbands, a brutal and appropriately cutting line-by-line deconstruction of female expectations, both human and insect.

Vibratory signals & pheromones mediate the reproductive behavior of stinkbugs. Cultivate sexual responsiveness. The brown marmorated stinkbug wears a decorative shell adorned by two large eyes & red ocelli. Dress femininely. During diapause, the female congregates in warm, tight crevices like the folds of curtains—her period of suspended development. Practice covering offenses with grace. The appetite is voracious. Show respect. Foraging relentlessly, it leaves insufferable devastation across orchards & forests. Never walk around with a scowl.”