{"id":1394,"date":"2017-05-26T18:00:56","date_gmt":"2017-05-26T18:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/?post_type=product&p=1394"},"modified":"2026-04-04T19:43:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T19:43:17","slug":"a-dangling-house-maeve-kinkead","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/product\/a-dangling-house-maeve-kinkead\/","title":{"rendered":"A Dangling House<\/em>, Maeve Kinkead"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Maeve Kinkead\u2019s poems, looking is both dangerous and necessary, as is looking away. In these brief lyric poems, guilt, blame, terror, and sorrow weave their way through \u201ca fine cloudless day\u201d to the \u201ccrowded church\u201d where a mother makes a fist against God, against the gods, while the speaker, not yet born, claims \u201cNo one saw her do this, I saw her do this.\u201d Such contradictions, capturing our impossible human condition, flood these beautifully unsettling poems. Yeats\u2019s apprehension\u2014\u201cfor the world\u2019s more full of weeping than you can understand\u201d\u2014haunts and accompanies this gorgeous first book.
\n\u2014Catherine Barnett<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Maeve Kinkead\u2019s poems tell secrets, skin griefs, and make contact with the dead. At their best, they combine sincerity with hunger in memorable poems of restrained beauty.
\n\u2014Henri Cole<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThe real trouble,\u201d Maeve Kinkead writes in \u201cPediatric Ophthalmologist,\u201d a poem about a visit with her brother to an eye exam, is that \u201cwe were scared to see.\u201d Not frightened or afraid but \u201cscared to\u201d as if an outside force created the familial astigmatism they share. And this force, we learn in poems poised, clear, and dramatically pin-droppingly still, is the accidental drowning of an older sister. A Dangling House<\/em>, Kinkead\u2019s first book of poems, provides a series of utterly vivid and devastating moments that tells a story of a family haunted by irreconcilable tragedy, and makes Kinkead, the \u201cersatz daughter,\u201d born after the event, a witness to the shattering effects of her sister\u2019s death.
\n\u2014Michael Collier<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Write truthful\/ the interior life\/ of the extended family\/ letters marching down\/
\ncreamy parchment\/ like a file of reticulated\/ ants.\u201d Tweet<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“to leave my sister who is that\/ flat coil of hair in the locket Mother wears.” Tweet<\/a>
\nAnd There I Find<\/strong>
\nBetween facade and polished edge
\nI feel the grit of city winds.<\/p>\n

On seamed concrete I come to rest
\nAnd there I find my mother\u2019s tears\u2014<\/p>\n

Chips of hardest sapphire dropping
\nThrough the gutter\u2019s slotted grate\u2014<\/p>\n

\u201cCome here, come here,\u201d I hear her say.
\nI raise the volume on the wind.<\/p>\n

Objective<\/strong>
\nWrite truthful
\nthe interior life
\nof the extended family,
\nletters marching down
\ncreamy parchment
\nlike a file of reticulated
\nants. Slip it in a fine
\nenvelope and affix
\ncolorful and antiquated
\nstamps prised from
\nsleeves of the collection
\nforgotten in the closet,
\nwalk 4 miles to the landmark
\nPost Office and bury
\nit in the garbage can
\nout front. Away, away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Applicable bookseller\/retail discount on bulk orders of 10+ copies automatically applied at checkout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1213,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[20],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1394","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\/1394","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=1394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=1394"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=1394"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/barrowstreet.org\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=1394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}