Fulgurite

by Catherine Kyle

Overview

Named for the glassy, mazelike structures that can form underground when lightning strikes sand, Fulgurite weaves together reality and myth. Informed by fairy tales, domestic fabulism, and environmental concerns, Catherine Kyle examines gender on large and small scales. Patriarchal influences in domestic spaces are compared to patriarchal influences on national and global levels, and identity is made complex by the fusion of survival, dissociation, and promise. The collection bears witness to the grief of the everyday while simultaneously pursuing hope.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798986966397
Publisher:	Cornerstone Press
Publication date:	04/17/2023
Pages:	106
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.25(d)

About the Author

Catherine Kyle is the author of Shelter in Place (2019) and other poetry collections. Her writing has appeared in Bellingham Review, Colorado Review, Mid-American Review, and other journals. She is an assistant professor at DigiPen Institute of Technology, where she teaches creative writing and literature.

Editorial Reviews

"These ethereal poems exist within the mysterious, magical realm of fairytale. Fluid and porous, they have a witchy, spellbound nature. These pieces float." -Allison Titus, author of High Lonesome

"Here is a poet who understands metaphor as deep transformation, whose lines strike like lightning and fuse to startle us into truth at once spiritual and politically vital." -Chen Chen, author of When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

"We are fortunate to have Kyle's many-faceted constructions in the world." -Jennifer Militello, author of The Pact

"A soulful and often stunning poetry collection." -Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2023-04-03
A book of poetry about seeking beauty and meaning in a disintegrating world.

In this collection of poems, Kyle seeks the sacred in the modern world. She opens with a meditation on “species grief”; the speaker scrolls and scrolls on their phone, looking for answers that one can’t find on the internet. A childhood memory resurfaces while the speaker chops onions in “Confession.” The poet paints a cozy morning scene with coffee and cinnamon buns in “Hearth,” and a poem titled “Domesticity” is surprisingly sensual: “trace with your thumbnail / the line that knits my ribs, expect me to unzip. Expect / to find not blood, but hot melted nectar there.” The speaker of “Home/world” attempts to distract themself from commonplace horrors, such as mass shootings and the climate crisis, with online shopping, but to no avail: “I look up fluffy comforters. I want / to be comforted. the economy doesn’t comfort me.” Another poem features the lament, “I don’t know how to change / the world. I do know how to make good / blueberry pancakes.” The author concludes with the titular poem, in which fossilized lightning is a metaphor for the narrator: “Like this, I become / a heart that singes and sings, / full of luminous paths.” Kyle is a spellbinding poet who sometimes makes magic with words: A girl with a glitter camouflage backpack is a “sequined celebration,” a mouth is a “cotton candy paint smear,” and God “lands / as cricket song and hound barks / over dark yards. In moonstone sweat / that curls perfumed hair on her neck.” She vividly describes how the “turnip of my heart turns a little. rotates wetly,” and the way “Insects are oublietted in the lampshade.” The result is a tender, endearing narrative of what it means to be human in the modern world.

A soulful and often stunning poetry collection.

Kirkus Reviews