Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough: poems
(Press 53, 2023)

Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough is a testament to Shuly Xóchitl Cawood’s belief that it’s the moments that matter—the ones you want to relive, the ones you want to take back, the ones you can never forget. Her poems often hone in on a particular story where life took a turn, or a truth was revealed. They mine regret and longing, travel through joy and sorrow, and hold on to a vision of the future while trying to let go of the past.

***Semi-Finalist of the 2024 PSV NORTH AMERICAN POETRY BOOK AWARD***

PRAISE FOR SOMETHING SO GOOD IT CAN NEVER BE ENOUGH:

“The author has a talent for writing poems that seem very personal. She immerses us in bubbling pools of deep emotion.” —Vick Mickunas, Book Reviewer, Dayton Daily News

“Immersing yourself in the work, you’ll discover stories rich in warmth and humor, as well as pain and regret. Some of the best are in the voice of a mature and sage (sadder but wiser) woman looking back at the missteps of her younger self, especially in love. . . . In addition to poignant narratives, this collection includes dry humor and the satisfaction of deep metaphor. . . . Revelations arise from well-observed details in these poems…”
—Main Street Rag review

“Shuly Xóchitl Cawood’s powerful storytelling is alive and vibrant throughout Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough. . . . You can’t read this collection without traveling through a life lived with brilliant and startling observations. . . . I could not help but feel a sense of revelation and completion but also desire for more of this poet when I hit the last page.” —Carla Rachel Sameth, Author of Secondary Inspections

“In Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough, we see denial and indulgence—all the things we withhold: love, food, companionship, desire, hope—and what happens when we allow ourselves these things. . . . Cawood tells us how she ‘eat[s] the bars, not even slowly, // and with no apology’ and this is how I consumed this collection—greedy for every word she laid on the page, every image she painted, every morsel she doled out.” —Courtney LeBlanc, author of Her Whole Bright Life, winner of the Jack McCarthy Book Prize 

“Shuly Xóchitl Cawood’s personal and human poems lift us into a world where the past—no matter its complexities or tragedies—can be understood and transformed. We read poetry to do the impossible, to live inside another human mind. ‘I want to tell you a story. // A story with no shame,’ Cawood writes. Yes; let her tell you about her mother who doesn’t believe she can cook or about best friends and good friends, holiday parties and soft-boiled eggs and buttermilk rolls. Learn ‘Yes is everywhere—like fireflies and silver-sided leaves and dogs that chase the rain.’ I’m so glad this book exists. Shuly Xóchitl Cawood has a talent for narrative as well as whimsy, for nonce forms—she’s a master of refrain and of riff— and I came away from these poems not only pleased, but happier for having read Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough.” —Laura Lee Washburn, author of The Book of Stolen Images    

“Shuly Xóchitl Cawood engages the inherent messiness of our lives. Searching potent memories and the rituals of daily life, Cawood’s poems yearn for deeper reassurance in cycles of loss and renewal. But more often than not, that reassurance can be found in the untamable, sometimes unnamable, details. . . . An early divorce — and the shadow it casts on subsequent relationships — provides this collection with a wealth of observations about change, loss, freedom, and desire. Running underneath these poems is a drive to reckon with patterns of the past and recognize their moments of beauty…” —Chapter 16.org review