Brigit Pegeen Kelly

The Orchard

Brigit Pegeen Kelly

• 2005 Pulitzer–Poetry finalist
• 2004 LATimes–Poetry finalist
• 2004 NBCC–Poetry finalist
• Score: 18.55

Richly allusive, the poems in Brigit Pegeen Kelly’s The Orchard evoke elements of myth in distinctive aural and rhythmic patterns. Her poetic strength lies in her ability to cast poems as modern myths and allegories. Propelled by patterned repetitions and lush cadences, the poems move the reader through a landscape where waking and dream consciousness fuse.

Song: Poems

Brigit Pegeen Kelly

• 1995 LATimes–Poetry finalist
• Score: 6.45

Brigit Pegeen Kelly writes a lyrical, surreal poetry that flies toward the magical. Informed by a spiritual vision, her poems sweep us into new relationships, as the darkness that “doesn’t come down, but rises up…. It gets the ankles first. It circles/ The ankles like flood water gradually filling/The basement of a house. Dark water full/ Of unnameable things.”