“Healing Yesterday’s Tears” by Kyli Santiago

Healing Yesterday’s Tears: An Inspiring Poetry Book about Overcoming Emotion and Discovering Love of Self

Kyli Santiago
Independently Published (2021)
ISBN 978-1732109612
Reviewed by Jill Rey for Reader Views (11/2022)

Poetry is an art form. Literally in the creativity it demands of its writers, but also in how the words are laid out on the page, from the spacing, the font and the paragraph breaks, as well as the story it slowly tells as it unravels. 

Author Kyli Santiago admits to having wrote this book of poems during her darkest days of battling depression. At its heart, “Healing Yesterday’s Tears” is a story of healing and survival, as the title suggests. The way the author organized the poems, in the order she chose to present them, is a story in and of itself as well. Each poem individually tells their own story in the battle to claw her way out from the darkness, while the collection as a whole shows the bigger picture. From picking up the pen to write and heal as the opening poem suggests, to a poem on poetry and how it flows and releases the stress and pain inside, giving strength and freedom, the author’s emotions are palpable. 

For anyone that has suffered from depression, the poem on the mental prison will certainly resonate with you. For those fortunate to not suffer from depression, these stories, these thoughts, these poems, will offer a glaringly true firsthand account into what it’s like, hopefully building empathy within you and a sense of understanding just what it is others are truly battling against.

“Healing Yesterday’s Tears” is the story of depression, what it does to the body, the soul, the memories, and the internal thoughts. While the poems and this finished book offer the final beauty of overcoming, they also show just how dark and painful the moments are when one is deep in the throes of a depressive episode. It is clear from the author’s work the dark places one’s own thoughts can take them. Fortunately, Santiago turned to poetry as she battled her inner demons, giving readers a dark, but artfully powerful glimpse as suicidal thoughts, self-hate, and a range of other emotions took over. “Healing Yesterday’s Tears” is a beautifully painful expression of depression, but one I am thankful to have walked alongside with the author as she battled her way back.