Precise

by Tina Kelley

In PRECISE, Tina Kelley's poems are alive with joy and spiritual import, yet do not forget the heart's darker places: in their expansive scope, these poems ennoble even when they lament.

106 pages, Paperback

First published January 15, 2013

Reviews

[Diane Lockward · Rating 5 out of 5]

A former reporter for The New York Times, Tina Kelley writes poems with the journalist’s insistence on precision and detail. But her poems also reflect a true poet’s imagination. For example, in “Joy’s New Job” Eve gives birth to twins. In “What That Daughter, Clare, Would’ve Been Like” Kelley imagines what her son would have been like if he’d been born a girl. These poems also reflect this poet’s love of language and imagery as she pulls material from such diverse sources as the newspaper, a dictionary, and her favorite cookbook.

While Kelley has mastered the long line and often writes generous poems that fill the page, she also shows her versatility in the variety of formats used in these poems. She keeps the reader slowly savoring each poem but also eagerly moving from one to the next, anxious to see what surprises lie ahead in the next poem.

This is a strong collection by a seasoned poet who knows her craft.

[George Witte · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lavishly-written collection, both extravagant and intimate: poems that cause you to notice small details in the natural world, imagine stories behind unfamiliar or neglected faces, and seek out nooks and crannies of curious inquiry (science, music, biology, the secret lives of animals, and more). Also, woven in between the mind's eye's roving gaze, are deeply personal poems of marriage, children, and friendship. A book that rewards close attention, re-reading, and in particular reading aloud for the pleasures of its language.