Toccata & Fugue takes us on a tour of the body — that "slab of gristle, jar of clay" — celebrating its capacity to heal, while at the same time acknowledging the raw fact of pain. Kelly's poems build their graceful structures from his work as a therapist, manipulating "the hard things / at the center of each lasting story, luminous, / resonating, strangely articulated, true." — Lucia Perillo
I know of no one else with such command of, and feeling for, the language of physiological particulars that he can make it sing, even in the most clinically precise usages. The foot, the tongue, the spine, in all their precious and mechanical inevitability, are made beautiful by dint of Kelly's enormous affection and faultless ear. There is deep mystery (and wonder) in the body's flex and stillness, and in this stunning sequence Tim Kelly offers it to us with both hands. — Christopher Howell
Read an excerpt.
Timothy Kelly was born and
educated in northern Ohio. He received his MFA from Boston
University, and his MPT (Physical Therapy) degree from the
University of Washington. His first book, Articulation, was
published by Lynx House Press in 1993; his second, Stronger,
won the
FIELD Poetry Prize and
was published by Oberlin College Press
in 2000. His poems, which reflect an abiding interest in the
movement, structure, and beauty of the human body, have appeared
in The Iowa Review,
Crab Creek Review, and other journals.
He works in Olympia, Washington, as a physical therapist,
teaches periodically at the Evergreen State College, and is
married and the father of two teenage boys. He spends his
spare time swimming, gardening, doing yoga and the laundry,
and arguing about whose turn it is to mow the lawn.
Toccata & Fugue is offset printed in a limited edition of 500 copies, perfect-bound in an attractive letterpress cover, designed and printed by Jules Remedios Faye. Typeset at Grey Spider Press.
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