McGookey, Kathleen

Whatever Shines: Prose Poems

ISBN: 1893996190
Buffalo, NY: White Pine Press, 2001. First Edition. Softcover. Inscribed, signed & dated by Kathleen McGookey to Dan Rzicznek. “The sweetness of the kiss cannot erase what came before, green words and potato’s eyes sprouting, a clear plastic film over all the furniture. She almost goes with the wrong man, and we feel as dejected as the hero, losing her, but look!---she is not lost in the weather. Time and time and time, words perfectly still, the gray cat sleeping on the kitchen table. She thinks of the many men she knows, undressing, how their skin from this distance seems papery—she could rip it with a touch. But she stops. She wears the moon on a silver chain; the moon, the untouched moon, wouldn’t sully itself if she were bad like that. She is alone, and birds fly breathless and stupid into her windows. At night, she hears the geese and the low lonely moan of the lake freezing, then breaking up. The birds sing for the fog to lift—it isn’t quite spring, but soon these words will green and sprout. She is trying to be careful. She is used to being alone. She would rather be in fields anywhere, muddy, the pink and white farmhouse intact as a doll house with a light in the corner bedroom. Any empty sky, with clouds like fish scales pushed by the wind. Today she thought there was something magical about white geese waddling in the fenced-in yard, the charred house silent. The geese the opposite of loss, fat pillows, slow. Shut doors. Just attraction, the possibility that takes its shape as a man wringing his hands. And she goes wingless.”--Kathleen McGookey, “Vernal Equinox,” pg. 7. Kathleen McGookey (b. 1967) is author of four books of poetry, including Instructions for My Imposter and Stay. She also has three chapbooks, a book of translations of French poet Georges Godeau’s (1921-1999) prose poems called We’ll See. McGoogkey’s poems and translations have appeared in many journals and anthologies, including Best Microfiction 2019, Best Small Fictions 2019, Copper Nickel, Crazyhorse, Denver Quarterly, Epoch, Field, New Micro: Exceptionally Short Fiction, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, Quarterly West, Quiddity, and The Southern Review. She has received grants from the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, the Arts Fund of Kalamazoo County, the Sustainable Arts Foundation, and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Offered today is the 2001 collection, Whatever Shines: Prose Poems. Her first collection of poems, Whatever Shines is a series of prose poems that is a perfect encapsulation of McGookey’s poetic voice. Quiet, contemplative, introspective, and thoroughly rendered with vivid imagery this is a collection that is as unique as it is emotionally resonant. From Jim Harrison’s blurb on the back cover: “Whatever Shines is an admirable and dazzling first collection. The voice is undisputably unique and haunting, and one looks forward to anything the poet writes in the future.” From the collection of Dan Rzicznek (b. 1979), an esteemed Ohio poet & professor at Bowling Green State University. Rzicznek has hand-written his ownership signature ("F. Daniel Rzicznek") in black ink at upper left margin of half-title page; signed, inscribed & dated by McGookey to Rzicznek in thin black ink at same: “For Dan, / with all good wishes. / Sincerely, / Kathleen / 6/21/06,” and she’s also signed above her printed name, which she has crossed out, at title page. Softcover original. First edition though not explicated as such at copyright page, first printing though similarly not explicated thereon. In very fine condition with minor wear to fine edges, and light smudging/scratching to front and back covers. Very Fine. [Item #9254]

Price: $40.00 save 10% $36.00