Putting My Ash on the Line

In this debut chapbook by Pacific Northwest poet, Kathleen Holliday, the reader is introduced to a voice sharpened by experience and imbued with a passion for words. As the title suggests, these twenty-nine well-crafted poems combine word-play and wit, history, myth ("The Wine-Dark Sea") and literature ("Ms. Havisham," "A Great White") to explore such themes as love, loss, family, place, and heritage. She can find the comic in the tragic ("Going For the Jocular"), the tragic in daily life ("Post-Impressionism") and take delight in extending a metaphor ("The Joy of Text"). Despite their brevity, many of the shorter poems ("Thanksgiving," "The Bounty") pack a punch. A member of her writers group describes Kathleen as a poet who writes 'with a literary sophistication combined with a wacky sense of humor.' The majority of the poems gathered here first appeared in print and online journals and one anthology; three of the poems, were poetry contest place winners.