You can't blossom until you break, and you can't break until you see yourself whole.

These are the two extremes Brandon Cohen wields on Bloom, his second collection of poetry. With inklings of the trajectory explored in his debut book Jump, Bloom organizes interpersonal chaos into a narrative that marries linear storytelling with the unpredictability of being human and being known.

Bloom, with all its polish and focus, is designed to be explored individually-after all, Cohen's poems here aren't only drawing from personal experience, but also an imagined space of self-reflection and self-sabotage.

Separated into five sections matching the ebb and flow of discovery and devastation in relationships, Bloom is a journey where questions of self and others fold in on one another in times of darkness and confusion.

Through love, loss, and the reconciliation of each tender thread of independence, Cohen explores the ways we wander and wilt before we flower into stronger selves.