Even When We Sleep

by Marilyn Kallet

Genres: Poetry

Unknown Binding

First published June 1, 2022

About the author

Marilyn Kallet served two terms as Knoxville Poet Laureate, June 27, 2018-June 2020. Even When We Sleep is her 19th book publication. Other poetry volumes include How Our Bodies Learned, The Love That Moves Me and Packing Light: New and Selected Poems, Black Widow Press. She translated Paul Eluard’s Last Love Poems and Benjamin Péret’s The Big Game. Kallet is Professor Emerita at the University of Tennessee. Since 2009, she has mentored poetry groups for the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, in Auvillar, France; this group will resume in Spring, 2022. Kallet’s poems have appeared in Plume, New Letters, Potomac Review and American Diversity Report, among others.

Contact: mkallet@utk.edu
Website: http://marilynkallet.com

Reviews

[Margo Berdeshevsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mischievous and profound at the same time, Marilyn Kallet's "Even When We Sleep" is both love song and life song, sexy witty and wise. Lines such as "to shed time/ not tears" "I remembered your beauty, though/ the river promised no regrets" "...Take a message/ to the earth: tell / her that blooms/ have saved us/ this spring...." Yes, light heart-ed and hopeful...but then there is a verse like this to crack the reader's heart:
"No one talked about 'les juifs',
French anti-Semitism
when I was in school.
No mention of Vel d'Hiv,
more than 13,000 rounded up,
4000 children. No one said, Drancy,
Septfois, Auschwitz.
Gung-ho gendarmes..."
................When poetry can both enchant and break the heart, you have a book that is a keeper. So read it!

[Susan Comninos · Rating 5 out of 5]

A playfulness, a readiness to laugh-at-self, animates Marilyn Kallet’s newest book, “Even When We Sleep,” making it boundlessly endearing. Delight is a key feature of Kallet’s musical voice, as when she mischievously pairs up homonyms like “Plato” and “Play-Doh” (in her poem “Spiritual”). Kallet’s delicious declarations (“Honey, words / are all we have / & hold”) let us know that, in these pages, we’re lucky to find ourselves in the company of an accomplished poet-chef, one ready to be happy with the most basic of ingredients — sound, language, and thought; the light in a backyard garden; the companionship of a longtime love — and to make us truly happy with them, as well.

— Susan Comninos, author of "Out of Nowhere: poems" (Stephen F. Austin Univ. Press / Texas A&M, 2022)

[Barbara Bogue · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Even When We Sleep" is magnificent in all regards. It is sensual and compelling Kallet combines sensory perceptions with a strong sense of place that pulls the reader into the moment. I highly recommend.

[Scott Holstad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marilyn is consistently consistent, and you can always count on quality, well crafted verse. She has a natural way with words, imagery, making connections easy for people, ie accessible without sacrificing her roots or craft. Marilyn is always recommended.