Critical Commentary
"I first met this excellent poet from Brush, out on the eastern plains, this past winter. An ivory black scarf around her neck, as daring as any avant-garde Isadora, Rachel read her powerful poems at the Karen Chamberlain Poetry Festival in Carbondale, while centered in a Tai Chi stance --calm, quiet but deeply inviting … We’ve been exchanging poems via email, and it’s been a delight to find such a powerful new voice." Art Goodtimes, Western Slope Poet Laureate, Pandora’s Box v. 1 #2
With an artist's eye, a mother's intuition, a Sufi's abandon and a
professor's discernment, Rachel Kellum is a rare poet. Her work is both
finely crafted and emotionally risky--and she brings us with her in her
willingness to explore what it means to be alive, to be in love, to hurt, to
be hurt, to surrender. Some poets are better on the page. Some better in person. Rachel Kellum is better in both.
--Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, San Miguel County Poet Laureate 2007-2011
Holding Three Things at Once, finalist Colorado Book Award 2009
