Kathleen Lynch Poetry

Hinge
by Kathleen Lynch

"Kathleen Lynch writes poems about bacon and eggs, Halloween pumpkins, crabgrass and the crack in the driveway—a world so common, so ordinary, we might not see it at all if it were not for the light of her poetry. And what a warm and loving light she brings! Hinge is a collection dignified by generosity of sprit, written by a poet who is ‘willing to touch each physical miracle,’ and then say out loud ‘I am grateful.’”

—Richard Jones, 2004 contest Judge, editor of Poetry East and author of five books of poetry including his new and selected poems in The Blessing, and Apropos of Nothing (Copper Canyon Press).

"Robert Frost once said that if a poem has outer seriousness he liked it to have inner humor. If outer humor, then inner seriousness. Kathleen Lynch's poems exemplify Frost's predilection. She's a poet of both gravity and charm, continually fascinated with the vagaries of what it means to be alive. I'm an unabashed Kathleen Lynch fan. She even knows how to make sadness lively. Those of you in search of serious pleasures, buy this book."

— Stephen Dunn, author of over ten books of poetry, including Loosestrife: New and Selected Poems, 1974-1994; Landscape at the End of the Century; and Between Angels. His collection Different Hours won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

"Fierce. Uncompromising. Warm. Wry. Kathleen Lynch's voice is all these things, as well as sure and reassuring. Lynch's poems are bold in their range, and fiercely honest in their observations. Her poems have such clarity that we feel we've entered a world utterly new, yet utterly familiar. The hallmark of her gifts is her ability to make the ordinary reveal itself to us in extraordinary ways. Only a poet of her grace, intelligence, and technical skill could allow us to pass so easily from the mundane to the miracles it contains, reminding us that the 'hinge between worlds' is always there before us. In Lynch's hands, it opens again and again."

— Lynne Knight, author of Dissolving Borders (Quarterly Review of Literature Prize, 1996), Snow Effects, Clearing Acanthus, and The Book of Common Betrayals (Bear Star Press Dorothy Brunsman Poetry Prize, 2002).

"Kathleen Lynch’s lithe and luminous poems provide a gateway between the shimmer of language and the representation of a world that is both familiar and deeply strange. It is a world invented from as well as constructed by memory where one encounters the contingencies of existence as they impinge upon ordinary moments—moments when one least expects to encounter the otherness of one’s own self. In these poems, which are not quite self-portraits, the self is a kind of metaphor always in flux. Each poem in the collection offers one more small revelation; a partial testimony to the odd fabric of any life that only becomes comprehensible through the words out of which one makes oneself."

— Alan Soldofsky, author of two collections of poetry, Kenora Station and Staying Home, both originally published as limited edition artist's books by Steam Press of Berkeley, intaglio prints by Lyman Piersma.

"As I read Kathleen Lynch's first full collection I had to remind myself again and again that poems as original, as perceptive, as moving as "Chicken in the Snow," "Decades," "Weather" and dozens of others are yet to become contemporary classics widely disseminated and read with joy by the ever-increasing fellowship that yearns for news only the best poetry can deliver. The wonders of Lynch's book begin with her invitational title: Hinge. Open the door. Walk in. Stay as long as you like. Return again and again. Poetry lives by love. I love every poem in this book."

— David Alpaugh, author of Counterpoint, (Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize from Story Line Press), The Edge, Slow Burn for Ozymandias, and The Greatest Hits of David Alpaugh (Pudding House Publications invitational series). He is founder and editor of Small Poetry Press.