From Library Journal
Kelly has won some of the most prestigious awards available to poets, among them the Yale Series of Younger Poets award in 1988 for To the Place of Trumpets (LJ 5/15/88) and now the Lamont Award of the Academy of American Poets for her current volume. The title poem is an absolute gripper: a haunting story of the sacrificial mutilation of a child's pet goat that finally attains an arresting, spellbinding, ghostly immortality. This opening poem is a hard act to follow, but Kelly keeps the interest high. Descriptions are vivid and indelible as Kelly skillfully captures the elusive nature of sights, sounds, odors, and taste ("The window opens. The smell and even taste of wetted dirt and wild fruit steps/Up"). A strong thread of spirituality is woven into almost all the poems, which move from reflections on a flock of wild turkeys to Botticelli's St. Sebastian. Kelly is far from a minimalist-her poems are long-lined and full of rich, compelling words-but she is never wordy-and she truly deserves the recognition she has received. For all poetry collections.Judy Clarence, California State Univ. Lib., HaywardCopyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Imagine a tapestry in which every color, itself resplendent, is couched next to another, equally brilliant hue. Such is Kelly's work--so gorgeous in its language, so vivid in its sonorousness. In Song--winner of the 1994 Lamont Poetry Award for the best second book by an American poet--Kelly is both lavish and demanding. Her images unfold intuitively, hypnotically. Her rhythms and repetitions drive the poems beyond mere logic into passion. It's tempting to cite great swatches, for although a single line is beautiful, the one after it reflects additional brilliance, and the next expands into luminosity. Kelly's poetry is symphonic, and each poem is best appreciated as a total composition rather than as a series of melodic lines. A glorious, wild work. Patricia Monaghan