In the Valley of Glow Trees: New and Selected Poems by Kerri Nicole McCaffrey

by Kerri Nicole McCaffrey

Overview

Poet Kerri McCaffrey's first book is effervescent with color and hope and song. You will breathe easily as you read. Kerri's words are alive with her childhood experiences, as when she describes the legendary woman in white who fell to her death from a ledge in Sleepy Hollow: "her dark hair/ like feathers/ her scream bright orange-/a flaming oriole/ to a synesthete." Kerri writes from both sides of the gender line, having undergone sweeping changes in her life. These were moves which required daring-by this world's standards-but Kerri knew there was something more at play-something beautiful and very close that most sense but cannot see-a just beyond, a thin veil of separation-and she trusted this as she made her decisions: "...today is lovelier than ever/ and ever /and my soul has broken the body's water/I see the world as so fair today/that I may die/I am close to seeing the other side/to seeing ghosts and God." Kerri's poetry and images flow from a clear well, fed by her deep belief in the sanctity of nature discovered by spending countless hours in wild places-far from cars, cell phones, and safety. She believes that our Higher Power is aware of us while we are here and is, "...anxious to use booming rockets/and end this exile/propel us home-/but we looked at earth in contemplation/at the silent wood sorrel/blooming from the loam." Travel with Kerri McCaffrey and experience the breathless beauty of her journey-the reverence she has for new life. You will read about tornadoes, magic, wilderness, the genders, baseball, hope, animals, the passing of time-and teaching. Kerri has taught for eighteen years, and has a special place in her heart for those who struggle with learning-to wit, this line from a poem praising Helen Keller's tutor, Annie Sullivan: "You taught her to place her feet on the bumpy road and walk-/her fingers on the bumpy writing and read-/to place her hands on your thumping heart and hope." Today, Kerri has two children and lives in a secluded cottage at forest's edge. It is the perfect place to play with words, to make the inherent beauty of the world tangible through metaphor and simile, and to continue trying to follow the inspiring road of Frost-which has made, "...all the difference." Kerri has found serenity; may you find it, too. "If I should die now/I want to start from here/nascent/and planted in a field of lilacs/watered with echoes."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781482031898
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	02/01/2014
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	7.99(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.44(d)

About the Author

Kerri McCaffrey grew up in Hawthorne, New York, a small hamlet nestled at the foot of Buttermilk Hill. On the other side of "Buttermilk" was Sleepy Hollow-home of the Headless Horseman. Kerri grew up inculcated in the descriptive language of Washington Irving's tales-which she had read in their original form by the time she was ten. Kerri attended a monastic-run college in Indiana-searching deeply to find her true self. She emerged with the courage to live authentically, to cross the gender line she needed to in order to really live, and with a clear understanding that she wanted to write. Today, she lives in a secluded cottage at the edge of a forest, is raising two children, and teaches fifth grade. Perhaps the poem entitled, "Poems Like Hope", says it best: "No one told me that getting through anguish would fill my soul with liquid words-but it has, and now-there is a flood."