a cappella: selected and new poems

These poems employ the short lyric as it derives from the haiku tradition. Through progressions of image clusters, Anne McKay captures states of experience that elude the conscious mind: “but young / was there / . . . and heat / hung with scarlet hurry / and gates forgotten / under sly and hunting moons / of summer hurting.” A high point of the collection is the sequence celebrating the life and paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe.

Reviews:

“Music and magic . . . her haiku and longer poems blending, an almost organic unity, probably the most lyrical being written today.”
—LeRoy Gorman, Poetry Canada Review

“She casts a spell through her use of language . . . like an incantation, as if a shaman spoke, as if performing magic . . . a resonance that increases reading after reading.”
—Wally Swist, Modern Haiku

“Astonishing street songs arrived in my mail one morning and started tossing light and color all over the place.”
—Cor van den Heuvel, Frogpond

“Renga partners share an affinity with dance partners . . . mckay loves whole-body dancing, intuiting the subtle threads of human nature connecting flesh to bone . . . don’t sit out this dance, renga never felt so good.”
—Terri Lee Grell, Mirrors