The Fever Poems by Kylie Gellatly

 

A debut volume of poetry by Kylie Gellatly traces the many flavors—bitter, sweet, and complex with selected lyrics confronting sorrow stimulated by the clashes, genocide, violence, and other heat simmering elements...darkly enlightening. Each deeply arresting poem is escorted by a succinct yet zealous comment masterfully compounding life and its observations.

In poem [it had been clear], the speaker regrets, she was supposed to run with the speed as the alcohol flowed passing through his fingers pulled off by the gravitational force, “to the usual/ vantage points/ within/ sight of the sun/ to quench the days/ without silver linings”.

[it had been clear]

I could

use the dogs to tie up the

horizon now

rid of elms

and I would see

from the glacial

pressure ridges

that fever was

to return

In the poem [the arc light] vague forms arise in a dark room and justify that they are not the hunters as mirrors and shovels shine so they can dig themselves out of the darkness. The depth involved in Kylie’s poems is complex and needs much attention of the reader to decode. 

[the arc light]

went out

and several vague forms emerged

in the dark living room

they spoke to me in women’s notes

we are not hunters

our knives are but mirrors and shovels

they shine so we can dig ourselves

out of darkness

At its most emblematic, the collection is a comment on poetry's effect on an audience, with each poem acting as its own philosophy about the appraisal and construal experience. Kylie’s command of symbolic language is undeniable.