Thursday, August 18, 2005

Brigit Pegeen Kelly, where have you been all my life?

Finally, I've found some poems to read. Had heard good things about Kelly from my friend G, who I think spent some time around her at Breadloaf last year (wasn't she there?). And I've gathered that her newest book, last year's The Orchard, has been causing a bit of a buzz. So I picked it up today on my way home. Gratefully, I'm amazed. She's got some of Plath's self-seriousness, and a kind of bewildered melancholy, revising and reenvisioning in order to put emotions in plain sight, next to the objects and people that call them out of their darkness. I'll have more to say later, but for now, a brief quote:

The bees came out of the junipers, two small swarms
The size of melons; and golden, too, like melons,
They hung next to each other, at the height of a deer's breast,
Above the wet black compost. And because
The light was very bright it was hard to see them,
And harder still to see what hung between them.
A snake hung between them. The bees held up a snake.

("The Dragon")

1 comment:

morescotch said...

I'm a big fan of her second book. The title poem is straight nasty.