Green and Burning, Poems by Kathleen McCoy

Kathleen McCoy's  poetry is luminous in the best sense: her close attention to the concrete particulars of experience casts them in a sharp, clear light, and which in turn makes them brighter, almost iconic in their import, inviting consideration of larger truths.

Sample Poems by Kathleen McCoy

“Kathleen McCoy’s book, Green and Burning, is rife with intellect and instinct, with praise and sorrow. It seems less of the cultural moment, and more of the timeless moment—more like Heaney at his best, or Four Quartets, than any contemporary that comes to mind. This is a resonant and resilient book for any seeker in the realm of the spirit."—Michael White  

“Kathleen McCoy’s poems in Green and Burning reach below the vivid image into the fire from which they are forged. The title poem, 'The Burning Garden,’ asks, have we ‘acted on a whim / to play with matches / just to see for ourselves what Fire is?’ Whether McCoy’s poems dance on the page or move without ornamentation, they always take us into the heart of the matter: ‘how all things spin together, dig, poke, / arch their way to relevance . . . .’ Highly recommended.” —Paul Pines

“McCoy’s controlled lines, alternately stately and frisky, make this commit-ment to the reader: to speak what matters. The female body, the mind and mortality of man, the unnamable-but-named God: these are her touch-stones, but she never presumes to know all the answers. There’s room for mystery here, and as in the work of feminists before her, the fierce is infused with the fertile and the smart. This book is cleansing, and full of clemency for us all.” —Nancy White

Kathleen McCoy grew up on a farm with her parents  and twin sister in the Appalachian foothills of south-eastern Ohio. She graduated from Georgetown College in Kentucky and then worked as a graduate teacher, waitress, factory assembler, dental hygienist, and legal assistant while completing a doctorate from the University of Missouri-Columbia. After a stint as a research analyst/writer in New York, she began teaching for SUNY Adirondack, where she now chairs the English Division and teaches creative writing. She lives with her husband, daughter, and the cats who own them.

ISBN-13: 978-1625491961, 88 pages

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