Light Filters In by Caroline Kaufman | Rating: ★★★★★

“It's okay if some things
are always out of reach.
If you could carry all the stars
in the palm of your hand,
they wouldn't be
half as breathtaking” 

This is one of the most promising debuts in modern poetry. Light Filters In showcases a wise, and still vulnerable and young, prose. Kaufman's honesty is a breath held in the dark, those few moments before you step out into the light. You read Light Filters In and it feels universally true and complex. Part of you feels the heaviness that is behind it at moments, the other part of you feels intertwined with each and every line. Although Kaufman is young in comparison to her counterparts, she fits in perfectly.

Not only will fans of Rupi Kaur, Amanda Lovelace and Alicia Cook love this debut, Caroline Kaufman will likely carve out a place all her own in modern poetry. Whether readers know her from her wildly popular words scattered upon social media or are only discovering her for the first time in print, she will be the voice of her generation and connect them to prose.

Light Filters In is one of those once-and-a-while releases that will introduced countless readers to self-expression in poetry; they will become enamored with her and the genre, and perhaps begin the path of creating something of their own.

While I've said this about poets in the past, I have to admit: I wish someone like Caroline Kaufman was more prominent in my teenage years. It was so startlingly easy to see my younger self in her work. Ultimately, this is what makes poetry so everlasting: connection. Kaufman's pen will draw a line from her words to your soul and it's a wonderful thing to witness.

Light Filters In is can't-miss-poetry and, I'm willing to bet, only a fraction of what Kaufman's voice will bring us in the years to come.