THE BEAUTIFUL UNNAMED

poems by Kathleen A Dale

This book is available on Amazon.com. Look for it there.

As poet and essayist Mary Ruefle has asked, “Which is more inexpressible, the beautiful or the terrifying?” And as Wallace Stevens reminds us, “Death is the mother of beauty.”

Kathleen Dale’s work has been compared to that of Sharon Olds and Elizabeth Bishop. In this, her fourth collection of poetry, Dale explores the connections between beauty and the deaths -- big and small -- that are always taking place around us. She “unnames” beauty in order to see it afresh in its many guises: her connection to the conflicted history of her home state, Kansas; the sudden death of her beloved sister at sixteen; the beauty and fragility of present family relationships; the uses of music and poetry in transforming loss; the varied perspectives that can lead us past stuck points; the hope in new life that can lead us past sorrow.

Linda Aschbrenner, founder of Free Verse, wrote of some of the work in this collection that Dale “faces off with death in these radiant, haunting, deeply felt poems of remembrance...[Her] memorable words streak across life’s ravines. We need such authentic poems for our sustenance.”

Proceeds from the sale of this book will go to benefit jazalesartstudio.org, which promotes the arts and education for the youth of Milwaukee.

About Kathleen Dale

Kathleen Dale was born in Kansas, though she has lived on the shore of Lake Michigan for over forty years, with her husband, Steve Kapelke. They have three grown daughters. She is a serious amateur pianist, and has always seen an intimate connection between music and poetry. In June, 2015, she will be giving her fourth recital of classical music, including works by contemporary American women. Her blog (www.kathleenanndale.squarespace.com) has chronicled her process of  preparing the recital, as well as of publishing this manuscript.

A Pushcart nominee, Kathleen is also the recipient of several prizes and best-in-issue awards for her poems, which have appeared in over thirty journals. She was nominated for inclusion in Best American Poetry, 2014, and in Spring 2013, was featured poet in The Centrifugal Eye’s “Sinkhole: Drowning or Surviving -- Themes on Coping in Poetic Form.”

Her previous collections of poetry include Ties that Bind (Finishing Line Press, 2006), Rescue Mission (Antrim House Press, 2011), and Avatars of Baubo (Green Fuse Press, 2013), all available on her website.