No Such Thing as Distance

by Karen Paul Holmes, Diane Lockward (Editor)

What marvelous poems these are, and how complete a collection. Like a circus aerialist who makes us gasp one moment and laugh the next, the poet takes us from her immigrant father’s Macedonian roots to her own maturity, to the life of a woman who is smart and well-read yet knows her way around a Coney Island hot dog and finds the attentions of a drunk cowboy oddly flattering. There are so many good poems here that it’s hard to pick a favorite, but I’ll put my money on “Confessions of an Ugly Nightgown,” in which a dead woman’s shapeless article of intimate apparel says it can still rouse a sleeping husband and is loveliest as it lies on the floor.

—David Kirby, Get Up, Please

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 1, 2018

About the author

Karen Paul Holmes is a freelance writer, poet and teacher. She hosts a poetry workshop in Atlanta and a writers’ night out in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Her two full-length collections of poetry are No Such Thing as Distance (Terrapin Books, February 2018) and Untying the Knot (Aldrich Press, June 2014).

Publishing credits also include Prairie Schooner, Poetry East, Tar River Poetry, Poet Lore, Atlanta Review, the Southern Poetry Anthology Vol 5: Georgia (Texas Review Press), and many more.

Reviews

[Brent · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm eager for more from this fine poet. Here, she ends with a handful of family recipes referred to in the poems earlier: a winning combination.
Recommended.

[Bruce Ballister · Rating 5 out of 5]

I met Karen Paul Holmes twice. First at the My Favorite Books indie bookstore in Tallahassee when she came to do a workshop for the Tallahassee Writers Assn. Charming woman. I met her again this afternoon as I did a cover to cover read of the book. The collection is an intimate look into her inner self, her family tree, and her appreciation for the glimpses of nature that imprint on your mind. Some phases pop to mind: "She didn't mean to mention Dad's first wife." "I heard a voice forced around the cement block in my throat." "Do not listen to the songs you and he listened to," "The heart injured from falling out of marriage is not an our-of-order heart." Just a few glimpses to tease, enjoy this book.

[Paige Riehl · Rating 5 out of 5]

In No Such Thing as Distance, poet Karen Paul Holmes’s alluring and vivid language immerses readers in the senses: Mozart’s muted violins enrapturing a class of prison inmates, “the sun’s path fluttering / on mercury water” beyond a quiet dock, the way a lilac’s “perfume creeps across your pillow” from an open window. The speaker explores her Macedonian heritage and familial relationships, sometimes through food—the memory of a now ex-husband learning to cook bean soup with his father-in-law, siblings reunited carefully layering filo dough “thin as onion skin” for the family zelnik recipe. (Note: recipes are included at the end of the book!) The collection unearths the pain of dissolved marriage, the loss of a mother to cancer, and it’s to Holmes’s credit that she offers no neat resolution to life’s challenges but balances all with a sense of surety, humor, and love. This is a poignant and well-crafted poetry collection well worth a read.

[Ann Kestner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never expected to find a few recipes at the end of a poetry book. But that is what concludes No Such Thing as Distance by Karen Paul Holmes. Strange as it seems, they fit perfectly. The poems are filled with “ingredients” – a dab of family history, immigration, marriage; a pinch of illness, death, divorce; along with measurements of geography. Karen’s poems illuminate how the ordinary is really a combination of extraordinary ingredients.

I let the words of other’s who have reviewed No Such thing as Distance fill you in on more about the collection. For the moment, I’m still in the kitchen surrounded by all the amazing ingredients.

[Berry's Poetry Book Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Karen Paul Holmes has created a poetic collection that is not only a successful piece of art, but also accessible to those readers who are not yet poetic scholars (but will be soon enough). The inspiration for these poems were planted in the everyday happenings of a real and vivid life. Then, after years of cultivation, they blossomed into this delicate, yet strong assembly, waiting to be shared with passersby."

Read the rest of the review here: https://poets.media/karen-paul-holmes...

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

The poems of No Such Thing as Distance are breezy reads. The content and language is clear and accessible. The topics include family ancestry and traditions, personal relationships, and a number of potent experiences. I think this a poetry collection that could be appreciated by people who are not typically poetry readers. It is worth noting that the cover is a spectacular work of art in and of itself. I enjoyed this collection, but most of the poems are not of the type to demand rereading and further mediation.

[Nina]

review pending