The ideas expressed in the poems are worthwhile, solid concepts about communication & emotional health my therapist would approve of. There are also some Buddhist teachings mixed in, which are interesting. At worst, self-help spirals into the icy circle of hell that is pure cliché, and Pueblo’s poetry is often a frozen lake of these. Pueblo writes straight-faced about “the fruits of your labor” having an “immensely positive / impact on your life.” And later Pueblo writes: “we do not need to reinvent the wheel.” Poetry is the antithesis of cliché; it’s disappointing to see so much of it here. Find a partner who accepts you as you are but also inspires you to evolve because they take their own growth seriously. The poems read like self help platitudes in free verse form or in long paragraphs. Nothing particularly special or sparkly or piercing about the language.

In Clarity & Connection,Yung Pueblo describes how intense emotions accumulate in our subconscious and condition us to act and react in certain ways. In his characteristically spare, poetic style, he guides readers through the excavation and release of the past that is required for growth. A powerful resource for those invested in the work of personal transformation, building self-awareness, and deepening their connection with others. Buy now:Pueblo’s prescriptiveness is so pervasive in Clarity & Connection that it is almost pathological. It is too easy to see the roadmap—so easy as to be useless at best, or dangerous at worst. Is it really true that we “should not trust” the way we see ourselves when our “mood is down?” I’m not so sure. Can’t pain also be instructive? I love the whole idea about the book, the execution not so much. I don't even know what the books was supposed to be. It's more self help than poetry, is it really just poetry because of the format it was written?

Ultimately, though, these moments were unfortunately few and far between. I often found myself distracted while reading this book, in the same way I find myself distracted when an often repeated commercial comes on the radio. I’ve heard so many of these themes before. “Inner work” and the urge to go “inward” are not new ideas, and they haven’t quite been refined into art in Yung Pueblo’s Clarity & Connection. If you’re looking for self-help, or for poetry, there are other books where you’ll find it better done. In these rapidly changing times, it is more important than ever to know ourselves well, even and especially in the face of turmoil. The Way Forward encourages readers to connect more deeply to their intuition, using it to remain focused and grounded amidst a world in constant flux. Progressing naturally from both Inward and Clarity & Connection, The Way Forward is an inspired beginning. Buy now:The poems that follow don’t offer much of an answer. We are reminded to “help people, but have boundaries.” Lest we fear we are falling into our old patterns, Pueblo offers the sage advice that “repeating the past / is a sign of progress.” As a self help book this book would have worked so much better for me, longer text, more details to everything, not so many repeats (that made me feel like we are running in circles), and this book would have at least been a 4 star read. His vision of self is a very healthy one. He doesn’t promote participation awards. But he does suggest, rightly so, I think, that we “throw away the idea that you need to pause your life until you are fully healed.” Life is motion. “How many times have you been unable to fully enjoy a special moment because you couldn’t stop thinking about what was missing?” This is not to say that youth doesn’t have its wisdom. After all, Taylor Swift knew everything she needed to know when she was 16, and can now spend the rest of her career re-recording her teenage songs to perfection. She’ll be fine and so will we. Yet, the practitioners of self-help poetry are seldom psychologists or therapists, and seldom have professional training as social workers. They are often young.