What marvelous poems these are, and how complete a collection. Like a circus aerialist who makes us gasp one moment and laugh the next, the poet takes us from her immigrant father’s Macedonian roots to her own maturity, to the life of a woman who is smart and well-read yet knows her way around a Coney Island hot dog and finds the attentions of a drunk cowboy oddly flattering. There are so many good poems here that it’s hard to pick a favorite, but I’ll put my money on “Confessions of an Ugly Nightgown, ” in which a dead woman’s shapeless article of intimate apparel says it can still rouse a sleeping husband and is loveliest as it lies on the floor.
—David Kirby, Get Up, Please
عن المؤلف
Karen Paul Holmes is the author of the poetry collections No Such Thing As Distance (Terrapin Press February 2018) and Untying the Knot (Aldrich Press 2014). She was named a Best Emerging Poet by Stay Thirsty Magazine in 2016 and received an Elizabeth George Foundation poetry grant in 2012. Her publishing credits include Prairie Schooner, Poet Lore, Crab Orchard Review, Poetry East, Atlanta Review, and The Southern Poetry Anthology Vol 5: Georgia, among others.Formerly the VP of Communications at a global financial services company, Karen is now a freelance business writer, poet, and ‘roving’ writing teacher. She founded and hosts the Side Door Poets and a monthly writers’ night out with an open mic.