Reviews
Advance Praise for The Fact of the Matter Stunning—haunting—quiet revelations, sometimes half withheld—words heard across a table, across continents, across centuries. These poems are the still moments between actions; time slowed to its instants (as in Muybridge's photo-sequences) then silently reassembled, so that a thousand years ago is yesterday. Achilles removes his helmet in the next room while Dürer prepares a pigment. These are the unheard whispers of the Odyssey, the hidden corners of the master's studio. Poems and Paintings and History and Love and the space one leaves them for. Fall out of and into time. Herein is purest magic." —Martin Corless-Smith, author of English Fragments: A Brief History of the Soul Praise for Dwelling Song : WINNER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA'S CONTEMPORARY POETRY SERIES COMPETITION ‘I'm almost opened,' say the final lines of Dwelling Song , ‘and / the color is about to come out.' Keith hides in broad daylight, and she becomes herself by changing constantly into something else. Smart, visceral, poised, reckless—these poems are content with discontent, at home when most at sea; their syntax turns wildly toward each new revelation. ‘What I first said was not enough,' says Keith. Dwelling Song will leave you famished, hungry for more." —James Longenbach Full of sharp, tight perceptions and even sharper, tighter sounds, Keith's second collection manages to embrace both the quotidian and the timeless at once. From their fusion, she fashions a vibrant immanence; this is poetry that takes place on the page right before your eyes. Lyrical yet mathematical, at times unnerving yet always compelling, these poems never stop opening up new territory. " —Cole Swensen ‘How many ways am I missing?' asks the speaker of one of Keith's moving poems—poems that dwell on the problem of having inherited spiritual burdens without reliable spiritual means; poems that seek a dwelling place in the remnants of lyric address. Keith's work struggles on behalf of the reader, and on our behalf it roams across sites of pained encounter. And it refuses not to sing." —Mark Levine Praise for Design : WINNER OF THE COLORADO PRIZE FOR POETRY The poetry of Design arcs between radiant acts of attention wherein Keith displays a brilliant, phenomenological turn of mind, as well as a capacity to sustain a lyrical interrogation of perception, faith, form, the architecture of flight, the fragility of matter. The vision is fractal, the language painterly. There is little of the contemporary poetic vernacular here, but rather a transcription of mind, as is found in the journals of Hopkins and Dickinson. She is that interesting, and this is an exemplary debut." —Carolyn Forché, Praise for Dwelling Song : WINNER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA'S CONTEMPORARY POETRY SERIES COMPETITION ‘I'm almost opened,' say the final lines of Dwelling Song , ‘and / the color is about to come out.' Keith hides in broad daylight, and she becomes herself by changing constantly into something else. Smart, visceral, poised, reckless—these poems are content with discontent, at home when most at sea; their syntax turns wildly toward each new revelation. ‘What I first said was not enough,' says Keith. Dwelling Song will leave you famished, hungry for more." —James Longenbach Full of sharp, tight perceptions and even sharper, tighter sounds, Keith's second collection manages to embrace both the quotidian and the timeless at once. From their fusion, she fashions a vibrant immanence; this is poetry that takes place on the page right before your eyes. Lyrical yet mathematical, at times unnerving yet always compelling, these poems never stop opening up new territory. " —Cole Swensen ‘How many ways am I missing?' asks the speaker of one of Keith's moving poems—poems that dwell on the problem of having inherited spiritual burdens without reliable spiritual means; poems that seek a dwelling place in the remnants of lyric address. Keith's work struggles on behalf of the reader, and on our behalf it roams across sites of pained encounter. And it refuses not to sing." —Mark Levine Praise for Design : WINNER OF THE COLORADO PRIZE FOR POETRY The poetry of Design arcs between radiant acts of attention wherein Keith displays a brilliant, phenomenological turn of mind, as well as a capacity to sustain a lyrical interrogation of perception, faith, form, the architecture of flight, the fragility of matter. The vision is fractal, the language painterly. There is little of the contemporary poetic vernacular here, but rather a transcription of mind, as is found in the journals of Hopkins and Dickinson. She is that interesting, and this is an exemplary debut." -Carolyn Forché
