Poetry From the Desert Floor

Patient, honest investigations of the places where external environment and personal identity clash and reshape one another.Kirkus Review..An all-encompassing context, the desert never functions as mere backdrop; rather, it infiltrates all, sometimes quite literally, as when the "winds blow / off the Rockies / leaving dirt on the floor, / in the bed, / on the old flowered sofa, /settling softly on the dishes." Nor are the human inhabitants unaffected. Under the unfiltered glare, men live harsh lives marked by violent ritual, while women labor quietly and unceasingly. Kelley's portrayals are hardly one-dimensional, however. Her poems capture a complicated, beautiful interplay of human and natural forces. Each of her subjects, no matter how unforgiving the circumstances, "grows into a desert bloom, fragile, beautiful, human."...Visual imagery complements the author's atmospheric photography...Kelley's unique explorations into the intersections of ecology and identity make her well worth the read.