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Karen Paul Holmes

Untying the Knot Paperback – May 5, 2014

by Karen Paul Holmes (Author)

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Turning back toward the past, to reckon with and reclaim it, this book seeks to untangle memory. On its surface, Untying the Knot is about severance—about leaving the beloved behind and, likewise, getting left—but it is also a meditation on the sources of love and language. “It’s a comfort / to imagine our rounded bones / becoming round bits of the globe / our spirits rising to orbit among spiral galaxies / joining those who completed the circle before us,” writes Holmes, whose voice pushes readers forward into the unknown with confidence, precision, and empathy.
—Dorianne Laux, author of The Book of Men and Facts About the Moon
These poems are poems about the pains of a broken marriage. About half the people who have ever been married would be eligible to write on the subject, but very few, if any others, could do it with such grace, humor, self-awareness, and without a dollop of self-pity, as Karen Paul Holmes has in Untying the Knot. This is a courageous deeply human book.
—Thomas Lux, author of Child Made of Sand and God Particles
In Karen Paul Holmes’s Untying the Knot, betrayal and sorrow are recontextualized into an acknowledgment of the transitory nature of relationships and the capacity to find joy through language. Indeed, in this work, one that dignifies a sadness so many feel, “a spark ignites the dry leaves” in lucid and radiant ways, creating poetry that not only enriches us, but possesses the potential to teach us ways to navigate and ultimately transcend the difficulties of divorce and the feelings of loss and grief such division engenders.
—William Wright, series editor of The Southern Poetry Anthology, author of Night Field Anecdote and Bledsoe

Print length

88 pages
Language

English
Publication date

May 5, 2014
Dimensions

6 x 0.2 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

0615998984
ISBN-13

978-0615998985
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Aldrich Press (May 5, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 88 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0615998984
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0615998985
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.2 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,535,903 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #62,398 in Poetry (Books)

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Karen Paul Holmes

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Karen Paul Holmes is the author of the poetry collections No Such Thing As Distance (Terrapin Press February 2018) and Untying the Knot (Aldrich Press 2014). She was named a Best Emerging Poet by Stay Thirsty Magazine in 2016 and received an Elizabeth George Foundation poetry grant in 2012. Her publishing credits include Prairie Schooner, Poet Lore, Crab Orchard Review, Poetry East, Atlanta Review, and The Southern Poetry Anthology Vol 5: Georgia, among others.

Formerly the VP of Communications at a global financial services company, Karen is now a freelance business writer, poet, and “roving” writing teacher. She founded and hosts the Side Door Poets and a monthly writers' night out with an open mic.

www.karenpaulholmes.com

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4.7 out of 5

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Raymond (Bud) Simmons

Review of Untying the knot by Karen Holmes

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 29, 2014

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I purchased from Amazon "Untying The Knot" by "Karen Paul Holmes"
There are some of us out there in the world that savor poetry as much as life itself and if you like me, are one of those, or even one who enjoys the written word I would highly recommend Karens book.

It has been said that a true artist has the gift of expression in his /her ability to show it in their work.This is a brilliant anthology of a journey through life that navigates the reader into their own past experiences, her poetry has taken no less than life itself for a stunning reflection.

These poems tell the story of heartbreak and life's poison arrows that all of us at one time or another had to endure as the price tag for life itself, poems such as "To she who will not be named" "shoulda, woulda, coulda, "And so it comes to this." to say are compelling and griping is an understatement.

Together they all reflect the story of a woman who walked through the fires of a divorce, loss, betrayal, and despair only to rise with an Inner Strength that appears available only when all else is gone.

I have found this book as inspiring as its author and could recommend it as a great study guide for your book club, or support group.
It would also make a wonderful gift to anyone on the road back, and certainly a great read with your morning coffee.

One person found this helpful

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D.C. Buschmann

Wonderful. Her words tugged on me to keep going ...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 9, 2016

Verified Purchase

I read her book last night. Could NOT put it down. Wonderful. Her words tugged on me to keep going so I could feel the full impact of her story. And, she did not disappoint. Was not expecting to see her in a, possibly, better place at the end, and that lent the element of surprise, which was rewarding. An impression, after reading, was inferring that her husband hadn't been honest with her for a long time—as if she’d had a slow-forming pimple finally expunged. Afterwards, things, though painful at first, got better. Her technique of showing all the raw emotions of an intimate betrayal, without blaming, brought me to my knees. Bravo! I recommend this book to anyone who has experienced a gut-wrenching betrayal and needs to see a way through it or any poet or writer who wants to learn to write well.

2 people found this helpful

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Mark D. Shaver

So worth it . . .

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 21, 2019

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Karen Paul Holmes is courageously honest in sharing the details -- and her feelings -- about her divorce, her healing, and her new relationship. She has an amazing gift to be able to say so much with so few words. Her story is personal, yet universal.

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L. M.

A journey of healing... for author, and reader

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 14, 2014

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What a wonderful experience. To be with her through the pain, and the healing... and the being healed.
She shares her journey gently and beautifully.

One person found this helpful

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Diane York

deeply moving and packed with raw emotion

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 19, 2014

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This book is best read cover to cover. It is easy to read and at times painful and deeply moving.

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Speaking to deep pain

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on April 30, 2015

When is a marriage like a knot?

Karen Paul Holmes is the author of "Untying the Knot: Poems," a collection of 49 poems published in 2014 addressing a range of relationships but focused on the crumbling and dissolution of a marriage. These poems speak to deep pain, the emotional anguish that strikes at one’s very being when what one accepted as the given in one’s life becomes the taken away. The title poem, placed about halfway in the collection, talks of recriminations and the personal guilt that the victim in a failed marriage can experience.

Untying the Knot

Why do knots form by themselves?
In my blow dryer cord,
cell phone charger,
dog leashes.
What Boy Scout crept into the dark
to practice right over left
around and through?
And what of the sheepshank of worry
in my stomach,
muscles tied tense with monkey’s fists,
hair tangled in little nooses?

The twists and hitches in our relationship—
who caused those?
Should I have jumped
through one more hoop
to tighten our ties,
looped my love around up
one more time?
Like a rope,
our marriage failed at the stress of a knot
and frayed at the bitter end.

The questioning becomes anger and self-defense. The anger in these poems emerges almost naturally, fueled by the betrayal of not only a husband but also by a best friend. The poet tries meditation retreats, writing hate letters, self-incrimination (“if only I had…”), even imagining a reality show for saving marriages. But eventually it comes to sitting at a mahogany table, signing papers. The poet doesn’t achieve internal peace, but she does eventually reach a kind of resolution.

Holmes has an MA degree in music history from the University of Michigan but lives in Atlanta, After serving as vice president of marketing communications for ING, the financial services company, she became a freelance writer – and a poet. This is her first collection.

The poems of "Untying the Knot" are painful in their honesty and candor. The knot indeed unravels, leaving – an untied knot.

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