VIVID (Paperback)

~ IRENE MCKINNEY (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"McKinney has a...refreshing empathy for others, and a deep personal humility in the face of everything we confront...." -- Jim Daniels, Author of Show and Tell: New and Selected Poems

"[Irene McKinney] writes with a strong soul, a great ear, and a commanding vista." -- David Baker, Poetry Editor, The Kenyon Review

Product Description

This is the fifth published collection of poetry by Irene McKinney. Her previous volumes of poetry include Six O’Clock Mine Report, Quick Fire and Slow Fire, The Wasps at the Blue Hexagons, and The Girl with the Stone in Her Lap. McKinney has also had poems published in numerous journals and magazines including Appalachian Heritage, Quarterly West, Southern Poetry Review, and Trellis.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 98 pages
• Publisher: West Virginia University Press; 1 edition (October 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0937058920
• ISBN-13: 978-0937058923
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 4.8 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,156,363 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars McKinney at the TOP of her Form, April 20, 2007

By	Ally Acker (Roslyn Height, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Poet Laureate of West Virginia, Irene McKinney's distinctive Appalacian voice is wise and mellifluous. I'm a huge fan of her work. Without a doubt, this is collection is the Pullizer of her oeuvre. She's at the top of her form. A must read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Scrump-dilly-ishus!, May 13, 2009

By	Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" (Cleveland, OH) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Irene McKinney, Vivid Companion (Vandalia, 2004)

Of all the poetry I read this month (including one I'm still working on), Vivid Companion was my favorite of the batch. Not bad given that my reading this month contained works by Stephen Dobyns and Nicole Cooley, and I have to say it was a pretty tight race to the finish between the three. McKinney's refreshing bluntness, however, wins out. It's hard to do bluntness in poetry and have it still come out sounding like poetry, which is why "refreshing bluntness" is probably redundant there.

In any case, now that that embarrassingly rambling intro is out of the way, onto Irene McKinney and her darned good poems. Earlier in this issue I reviewed Eve Alexandra's first book, and puzzled over the supposed eroticism. Irene McKinney shows how to achieve it without really trying. Even, in fact, when she's (seemingly) trying to do the opposite;

(I'd have included a piece of "Gray's Anatomy" here, but it'd get redlined by Amazon for technical language describing certain body parts. Trust me, that one's worth the price of admission by itself.)

There are poems in this book that prompt me to say "gravity has rarely looked this good."I keep trying to come up with real zingers to quote here, and all the ones I really want to throw at you would get bounced right out of Amazon's silly filters. So just pick this one up, will you? Yeah, it's good. Really good. *** ½

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A West Virginia Poet Little Known, August 13, 2008

By	Susan R. Schefflein "Poet" (East Coast) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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This is a beautiful book. I knew very little about this poet. She has a wisdom from years of living, years of reading, years of abiding with her native land and her feeling for nature. She made a statement about trees that just blew my mind. "I love the trees. They seem to do what they are made to do very well." I like her poems very much.