Cry.Sweat. Bleed. Write.

by Bell Kay, Eileen M Cleary (Editor)

Overview

Kay Bell’s piercing and poignant collection of poems begins in a place of displacement, as the

poet endures her childhood uprooting from the Caribbean islands to a fragmented America.

There she encounters a mother’s harsh life, fatherlessness, a stressed girlhood, and elusive

opportunity. She is “sponsored by aching,” and experiences “what it means to be a grown

woman afraid of the dark,” and discovers “how difficult it is to anticipate the morning.” Yet the

poet’s voice is resilient and determined, seeking intimate romantic connection, while attempting

to relearn “trust in man’s uprooting flesh.”.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781733768375
Publisher:	Lily Poetry Review
Publication date:	01/07/2020
Pages:	46
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.10(d)

About the Author

Kay Bell can be quoted: "If it makes me cry, sweat or bleed, then it is worth writing about." Her work appears in the book "Brown Molasses Sunday: An Anthology of Black
Women Writers", The Lily Poetry Review, Moko: Caribbean Arts and Letters, The Write
Launch, PRONG & PROSY and other venues. She earned a MFA at The City College of
New York and lives in the Bronx. She considers herself a bibliophile.

Eileen Cleary is a nurse and poet who earned an MFA at Lesley University and second at Solstice of Pine Manor. She is twice a Pushcart nominee and has work published or upcoming in Naugatuck River Review, J Journal, The American Journal of Poetry, West Texas Literary Review, Right-Hand Pointing, Solstice, and Sugar House Review among others. Her work has appeared as a Rainworks Installation in Newton, Ma.

She manages the Lily Poetry Salon and is Editor-in-Chief Lily Poetry Review and Lily Poetry Review Books. I'm taking a chance on my strange and authentic poems.

Her debut poetry collection, 'Child Ward if the Commonwealth' was published by Main Street Rag Press in June 2019

Editorial Reviews

Kay Bell’s piercing and poignant collection of poems begins in a place of displacement, as the poet endures her childhood uprooting from the Caribbean islands to a fragmented America. There she encounters a mother’s harsh life, fatherlessness, a stressed girlhood, and elusive opportunity. She is “sponsored by aching,” and experiences “what it means to be a grown woman afraid of the dark,” and discovers “how difficult it is to anticipate the morning.” Yet the poet’s voice is resilient and determined, seeking intimate romantic connection, while attempting to relearn “trust in man’s uprooting flesh.” Infused with a determined vision and a resilient faith that “bodies are engraved in purpose” even if “sometimes the body is not the body/but what’s left of what didn’t explode,” Cry. Sweat. Bleed. Write. testifies to the power of poetic witness and the heard hope of the human word.

-David Groff, author of Clay and Theory of Devolution.

From the Publisher