Song for Highway 40 Ellen Chavez Kelley 9781936370856 Books
Download As PDF : Song for Highway 40 Ellen Chavez Kelley 9781936370856 Books
Ellen Chavez Kelley's book is a stark, lovely journey through the landscape of motherhood and memory.
Song for Highway 40 Ellen Chavez Kelley 9781936370856 Books
Last month while my partner and I were having coffee at her friends' place in L.A., I picked up a poetry book from a side table, flipped it open randomly, and arbitrarily read the first two poems I saw. The book, "Song for Highway 40," (Turning Point Press, 2012) is by a Santa Barbara-based poet I hadn't heard of before named Ellen Chavez Kelley. Those two poems made me want to read the rest, and I subsequently did. Much contemporary poetry hits me as guarded and willfully arcane, but these poems had a directness of expression that was at times near-journalistic. I appreciate it when a writer uses words to clarify rather than obfuscate, even in a form as personal and essentializing as poetry. Many of Kelley's poems are set in Taos, New Mexico, where she lived and wrote, alone, during a ten-week residency. She evokes the piñon pines and sagebrush, thunderstorms rolling over the Sangre de Cristos, glorious piquant chile-infused food, the timelessness and stillness of that place. You will read and sigh and daydream, especially if you already have a soft spot for northern New Mexico (and there are plenty of us New Mexico expats-of-the-soul all over, including in the Northwest). But even in the Taos poems, Kelley isn't fully at peace; she misses her husband back home something fierce, and her writing throbs with homesickness. Something very bad has also happened to the couple's daughter at some point in the past. Compassionately, protectively, she never names exactly what it was. Whatever happened, Kelley's heartbreak over it imbues her stanzas with a deep, creeping melancholy that is hard to shake. The passage of time is also a character in the book, particularly as it relates to her relationship with her husband of many years. I was moved by "Song for Highway 40" and would recommend it highly. --Richard Speer, Portland, OregonProduct details
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Song for Highway 40 Ellen Chavez Kelley 9781936370856 Books Reviews
This is a beautiful collection of poetry by an amazing poet. Really wish this book were available in digital form so that more readers could enjoy it!
Last month while my partner and I were having coffee at her friends' place in L.A., I picked up a poetry book from a side table, flipped it open randomly, and arbitrarily read the first two poems I saw. The book, "Song for Highway 40," (Turning Point Press, 2012) is by a Santa Barbara-based poet I hadn't heard of before named Ellen Chavez Kelley. Those two poems made me want to read the rest, and I subsequently did. Much contemporary poetry hits me as guarded and willfully arcane, but these poems had a directness of expression that was at times near-journalistic. I appreciate it when a writer uses words to clarify rather than obfuscate, even in a form as personal and essentializing as poetry. Many of Kelley's poems are set in Taos, New Mexico, where she lived and wrote, alone, during a ten-week residency. She evokes the piñon pines and sagebrush, thunderstorms rolling over the Sangre de Cristos, glorious piquant chile-infused food, the timelessness and stillness of that place. You will read and sigh and daydream, especially if you already have a soft spot for northern New Mexico (and there are plenty of us New Mexico expats-of-the-soul all over, including in the Northwest). But even in the Taos poems, Kelley isn't fully at peace; she misses her husband back home something fierce, and her writing throbs with homesickness. Something very bad has also happened to the couple's daughter at some point in the past. Compassionately, protectively, she never names exactly what it was. Whatever happened, Kelley's heartbreak over it imbues her stanzas with a deep, creeping melancholy that is hard to shake. The passage of time is also a character in the book, particularly as it relates to her relationship with her husband of many years. I was moved by "Song for Highway 40" and would recommend it highly. --Richard Speer, Portland, Oregon
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