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About the Poem:This poem is restless in the most literal sense: constant movement framed by the idea of exile, itself the absence of a place to rest. But that's not something you'll understand from the 'facts' of this poem - instead it's in the feelings the images evoke. Allen is asking her reader to step outside the customary use of language into a world made entirely of metaphor. She's asking us to set aside our literal expectations, to join the poem's collective voice as "we" alternately pursue (hunter and hermit) or are pursued (by the horse) across border after border. It's not necessary to decode every statement. What is necessary are repeated readings over time to allow the implications of, say, eggs that are also "dark stones" to slowly reveal themselves. It's a poem to savor.
About the Poet:
Kelli Allen is an award-winning poet and scholar. Her work has appeared in The Blue Sofa Review, WomenArts Quarterly, The Caper Review, It Has Come to This: Poets of the Great Mother Conference,Foliate Oak, Greatest Lakes Review, Lugh Review (where she was the featured author), Blackmail Press, Puerto del Sol, The Chaffy Review,Euphony and elsewhere. She is the author of two chapbooks (Applied Cryptography; Picturing What Breaks) and has served as the Managing Editor of Natural Bridge. Allen also serves as Director of Development for The Missouri Warrior Writers Project, which serves United States Veterans as they attempt to tell their stories through poetry and creative non-fiction. She is also the founder and director of the Graduate Writers Reading Series for the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Allen gives readings and teaches workshops throughout the US.
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