What do you think?
Rate this book
Mother of Other Kingdoms
143 pages, Paperback
Published March 26, 2024
2 people are currently reading
13 people want to read
About the author
Kai Coggin
12 books48 followersKai Coggin (she/her) is the author of MINING FOR STARDUST (FlowerSong Press 2021), INCANDESCENT (Sibling Rivalry Press 2019), WINGSPAN (Golden Dragonfly Press 2016), and PERISCOPE HEART (Swimming with Elephants Publications 2014), as well as a spoken word album SILHOUETTE (2017). She is a queer woman of color who thinks Black Lives Matter, a teaching artist in poetry with the Arkansas Arts Council and Arkansas Learning Through the Arts, and the host of the longest running consecutive weekly open mic series in the country—Wednesday Night Poetry.
Recently awarded the 2021 Governor’s Arts Award and named “Best Poet in Arkansas” by the Arkansas Times, her fierce and powerful poetry has been nominated four times for The Pushcart Prize, as well as Bettering American Poetry 2015, and Best of the Net 2016, 2018, and 2021. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in POETRY, Cultural Weekly, SOLSTICE, Bellevue Literary Review, TAB, Entropy, SWWIM, Split This Rock, Sinister Wisdom, Lavender Review, Luna Luna, Blue Heron Review, Tupelo Press, West Trestle Review, and elsewhere. Coggin is Associate Editor at The Rise Up Review. She lives with her wife and their two adorable dogs in the valley of a small mountain in Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas.
Recently awarded the 2021 Governor’s Arts Award and named “Best Poet in Arkansas” by the Arkansas Times, her fierce and powerful poetry has been nominated four times for The Pushcart Prize, as well as Bettering American Poetry 2015, and Best of the Net 2016, 2018, and 2021. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in POETRY, Cultural Weekly, SOLSTICE, Bellevue Literary Review, TAB, Entropy, SWWIM, Split This Rock, Sinister Wisdom, Lavender Review, Luna Luna, Blue Heron Review, Tupelo Press, West Trestle Review, and elsewhere. Coggin is Associate Editor at The Rise Up Review. She lives with her wife and their two adorable dogs in the valley of a small mountain in Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 25, 2024
It was okay.
I did like a few of the poems in this collection, because there were a few gems I liked about them and how they felt like a real person and not just words on a page. Some poems felt colorful, and I liked that about it. The visuals were pretty and I enjoyed the homey feeling to some.
There was a lot of repetition that felt overused, and a lot of times the writing didn’t make a lot of sense. It was as if Coggin was just mumbling about stuff over and over again.
Otherwise I don’t have anything bad to say, because this poetry collection is not just words but a life. How life goes on, how it molds us, and pushes us.
Poems I liked the most:
“Knitting Sweaters for Hummingbirds”
“Hungers”
“Pipe Organs Inside a Japanese Wind-Chime”
“Night Blooming Cereus/Queen of the Night”
“Ode to Ramen Noodles”
“Making Something That Lasts”
“Self-Portrait as Greenhouse”
I did like a few of the poems in this collection, because there were a few gems I liked about them and how they felt like a real person and not just words on a page. Some poems felt colorful, and I liked that about it. The visuals were pretty and I enjoyed the homey feeling to some.
There was a lot of repetition that felt overused, and a lot of times the writing didn’t make a lot of sense. It was as if Coggin was just mumbling about stuff over and over again.
Otherwise I don’t have anything bad to say, because this poetry collection is not just words but a life. How life goes on, how it molds us, and pushes us.
Poems I liked the most:
“Knitting Sweaters for Hummingbirds”
“Hungers”
“Pipe Organs Inside a Japanese Wind-Chime”
“Night Blooming Cereus/Queen of the Night”
“Ode to Ramen Noodles”
“Making Something That Lasts”
“Self-Portrait as Greenhouse”
December 17, 2025
A collection of poems about mothering the earth, its creatures, the poet's own pets, and the natural world.
from Coming to a Poem: "These moments of silence / at the start of the day— / this quiet wildness, / this tending and feed // before the news of some everyday tragedy rocks me to the core / some free or flood or unnamed catastrophe of war // these moments hold me."
from Just Talk: "I was taught to swallow my pain— / not to talk through it / not to talk it out / not to express it but to hold it in / a blade made poison / not to make waves / than the tsunamis already crashing"
from I Talk to Flowers: "I don't know about you / but something within me has changed, / some threshold has been crossed, and I am answering / buds and petals calling to me unfurling / in all their intimate tender splendor—"
from Coming to a Poem: "These moments of silence / at the start of the day— / this quiet wildness, / this tending and feed // before the news of some everyday tragedy rocks me to the core / some free or flood or unnamed catastrophe of war // these moments hold me."
from Just Talk: "I was taught to swallow my pain— / not to talk through it / not to talk it out / not to express it but to hold it in / a blade made poison / not to make waves / than the tsunamis already crashing"
from I Talk to Flowers: "I don't know about you / but something within me has changed, / some threshold has been crossed, and I am answering / buds and petals calling to me unfurling / in all their intimate tender splendor—"
September 21, 2024
Kai Coggin is a wonderful poet who covers so many important themes including warfare, LGBTQ issues, and human rights. Her poetry is lush and full of descriptions of flora, fauna revealing a love for mother nature. She also include autobiography in her writing showing love for her wife and others close to her. I read a poem each day and this book helped me heal from the loss of my partner at the beginning of this year.
May 26, 2024
Kai Coggin helped poetry come through the pandemic stronger, and her own voice has come into its own with Mother of Other Kingdoms. She writes, “There are many ways to come to a poem—“ and Coggin’s poems draw us “to where the wild and hungry things wait” for her and for us. Harbor Editions is publishing wonderful books!
December 8, 2025
This is the kind of poetry collection that makes you want to go outside and kiss a flower. Beautiful, playful, evocative, life-affirming, and super queer. Everything I want in poetry. Kai Coggin is going right on my must-read list.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews