{"id":1377,"date":"2017-05-26T17:28:04","date_gmt":"2017-05-26T17:28:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/?post_type=product&#038;p=1377"},"modified":"2024-01-12T05:44:39","modified_gmt":"2024-01-12T05:44:39","slug":"tributary-kevin-mclellan","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/product\/tributary-kevin-mclellan\/","title":{"rendered":"<em>Tributary<\/em>, Kevin McLellan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The poems of Kevin McLellan\u2019s highly accomplished first collection are haunting and elliptical but never oblique or encoded. Lightning flashes of insight, memory, elegy, and stern self-reckonings illuminate the horizons of these poems, which are unsettling and ecstatic by turns. These are the poems of \u2018polysemy without mask\u2019 that Paul Celan strove to write, and Kevin McLellan is a poet of singular promise.<br \/>\n\u2014David Wojahn<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Writing with a matrix of loss, <em>Tributary<\/em> begins where language is most labile and finds manifest reasons for praise. Here is a blueprint of what I can only call the <em>partiality<\/em> of human experience, where time and perception offer moments, never totalities, of individual purpose for existing. If it is true \u2018that a you doesn\u2019t \/ exist, and one hundred \/ and two times over \/ faith is lost\u2019 (\u201cHands: A Tribute\u201d), it is equally true that these poems pay homage to the nature of that secondary state, where faith is as often found. Locating the tribute inside of <em>Tributary<\/em>, this book is an impressive debut, and Kevin McLellan might well be a Heraclitus for the twenty-first century.<br \/>\n\u2014Claudia Keelan<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;the mind, my mind\/is cut flowers: I lost\/my body between\/field and vases&#8230;&#8221;\u00a0\u00a0 <a class=\"twitter-share-button\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" data-size=\"large\" data-text=\"&quot;the mind, my mind\/is cut flowers: I lost\/my body between\/field and vases...&quot;\" data-url=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/2uTHhdh\" data-via=\"BarrowStreetInc\" data-show-count=\"false\">Tweet<\/a><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When a lasting visitor\/mirrors slowness\/and up until now\/darts across my red sky.&#8221;\u00a0\u00a0 <a class=\"twitter-share-button\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" data-size=\"large\" data-text=\"&quot;When a lasting visitor\/mirrors slowness\/and up until now\/darts across my red sky.&quot;\" data-url=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/2uTHhdh\" data-via=\"BarrowStreetInc\" data-show-count=\"false\">Tweet<\/a><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>How to Survive a Plague<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>groundwater gushes the sidewalk \/ funnels<br \/>\ninto the avenue \/ no \/ in reverse from here<br \/>\nblood follows the puckered sidewalk \/ licks up<br \/>\ncontaminants \/ enters a recumbent body<\/p>\n<p>*<\/p>\n<p>chamber music + <em>Verde Luz<\/em> + emphatic<br \/>\nRavel at St. John\u2019s = to ponder once more<br \/>\neach passing day \/ if each passing<br \/>\nday without faith is recoverable<\/p>\n<p>*<\/p>\n<p>empty the saltwater from the bowl<br \/>\nholding the rose quartz cluster<br \/>\nand slowly pour new saltwater over<br \/>\nthe crystals \/ now the almost-full bowl<\/p>\n<p>*<\/p>\n<p>composed of turquoise the subconscious<br \/>\nbeach \/ the tide cleans makeshift<br \/>\nchanging rooms for sleeping chambers<br \/>\n\/ yes the color is believed to fend off tigers<\/p>\n<p>*<\/p>\n<p>a he-runner victoriously in turquoise shorts<br \/>\nbut does he know <em>turquoise<\/em> is derived<br \/>\nfrom Old French for <em>Turkish<\/em> \/ to want<br \/>\nto bathe with him \/ no \/ to want more<\/p>\n<p>*<\/p>\n<p>the twinks ignore a mint tea sipping gay<br \/>\nas they wait for to-go <em>macchiatos<\/em> \/<br \/>\nhe is twice their age \/ he is used to them \/<br \/>\nhe can never get used to this<\/p>\n<p>*<\/p>\n<p>an i surfaces as if from out of silhouette<br \/>\n\/ out of desire \/ out of sleep \/ out of routine<br \/>\n\/ out of doubt \/ out of the ground \/ out<br \/>\nhe says <em>light light light light light light<\/em> into light<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Applicable bookseller\/retail discount on bulk orders of 10+ copies automatically applied at checkout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1378,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[20],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1377","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-poetry","8":"first","9":"instock","10":"shipping-taxable","11":"purchasable","12":"product-type-simple"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/1377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1377"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=1377"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=1377"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=1377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}