Xiphoid Process

by Kevin Connolly

Nine years (ahem...) in the making, award-winning Kevin Connolly’s new collection extends its author’s investigation of identity, authority, intention, and authenticity. What is a public poetry? In an age of tweets and trolls, what should it even try to be? Through revision, redaction, ventriloquism, homage, self-sabotage, and outright plunder, the poems in Connolly’s Xiphoid Process interrogate the alleged futility and alleged insight of mid-life. Are we who we are simply because we’d otherwise be nothing? Or are we (more hopefully) something parked, for a time, in time, trying to make something useful out of the experience? Walt Whitman, Tom Petty, Alec Baldwin, Doug Stanhope, Journey, Judd Nelson, Billy Ripken, Johnny Weissmuller, Don Felder, Lindsay Lohan, Shiprock, NM, the police blotter at Point Reyes Station, CA and the moons of Saturn are all poised to make their case in the poet’s latest deliberations.

Genres: Poetry

88 pages, Paperback

Published April 8, 2017

Reviews

[Maggie Gordon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was drawn in by the pop culture vibe of the poems, but I can't say they did much for me. The style varies a lot, but I just never felt myself really falling into the deeper meaning of the poems. I find myself just not particularly wowed by some of the hypermodern poetic offerings out there, but if that's your thing, Xiphoid Process might be a great fit.

[Dawn Obrien · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very deep poetry book. The author pretends to be 45 different poets. Keeps it very interesting

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

These poems have something for everyone.They cover all sorts of things and it is hard to describe them as one thing.He does use all forms ,not just rhyming and such.It is the ideas sprouting out of his mind in pure form and he writes for the sake of getting them all out."Lawless as snowflakes,words descend in new forms."

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal and moving poetry that has a unique and modern, somewhat pop-culture voice. Thrilled to have this in my collection.