Kate Gray

i'm sad that this is the last of the kate gray books that are published that i hadn't read, so i don't have more to read (until she publishes more). i'm sad that when she's writing prose that means she's not writing poetry. i'm sad that when she's writing poetry that means she's not writing prose. she is so talented.

this book is beautiful. physically, i mean; the cover is gorgeous, the paper, the printing. it's a work of art in and of itself. and on top of that there are the poems.

the book is divided in two halves. the first half is well done, certainly, but the second half is just so...much. every poem builds on the previous one, using a word or phrase (and sometimes a theme) from the end of the poem before to begin the next; it works so incredibly well to tie them all together and build this raft of emotion that just builds and builds from poem to poem. this last half of the book is astounding. (if the book was only this half it would get 5 stars for sure.)

my two favorites are two in a row from this second half, first Pleasure and Need and then The Flood:

Pleasure and Need

Imagine
you are an island parting
a river, a knot in wood, an iris
in grass, a volcano
cutting clouds. Imagine your legs
are the river parting, the island
supple, a tongue. Imagine waves
wrapping your island
in the flow, my hold
on you firm,
shimmering.

The Flood

now you firm beneath
the pull of me
lapping
my belly sliding down
my breasts dripping thick
rain rushing from hills sloped
like your neck once sinews of sand
now currents
converging

waters receding
you will remember white
kisses ringing each limb
water rushing sweet places as
I wane
you will rise up oh
island… (plus d'informations)

hard for me to rate this because i think that what i didn't like was mostly just over my head. but because i rate poetry on how it sits with me, i'll go with this.

my favorite poems in this chapbook also appeared in another sunset we survive. the ones that weren't in both books, i thought weren't as strong as what was found in another sunset. or at least didn't reach me in the same way.

still, i love this author and think she's a great writer. i'll continue to read whatever she produces.… (plus d'informations)

beautiful language and writing, even when much of the content is about things that are anything but beautiful. i didn't understand what all of these poems were about, but i did enjoy the language in each of them, and the ones i did understand were (mostly) quite powerful. as i don't know much about poetry i can't say for sure, but it seemed to me she was following different poetic structure in these poems and not just writing in free verse, which i presume to be harder or more restrictive. she really is a great writer.… (plus d'informations)