Translations
Mary Kennan Herbert's poetry transcends the ordinary, crafting a language that bridges the gap between the ineffable and the deeply tangible. Her words are translations of the soul's whispers, transcribed into a dialect understood by those who seek profundity in the everyday.
September Discards
As autumn sheds its verdant coat, so does Herbert peel away the superficial, reaching into the heart of human experience. In her poetry, September's discards become metaphors for the layers we shed in search of our own raw essence.
Theologians at Lunch
The mundane commingles with the divine in Herbert's "Theologians at Lunch," where simple acts of breaking bread acquire spiritual dimensions, prompting introspection on the sacred in the quotidian.
Sorting a Tray of Slides
With each slide, Herbert dissects moments of life under her poetic lens, magnifying the beauty and pathos in the fragments of our collective memories.
Mary Kennan Herbert
Herbert stands as a woman among us, but her voice echoes from a place of otherworldly wisdom. Her poetry paints her as a mentor, a muse, and a mirror reflecting the complex nature of femininity and human experience.
Your Words Like Huge Cities—Love Them
Herbert's verses sprawl like metropolises, teeming with life and stories. To navigate these urban landscapes of text is to witness the grandeur of her emotional intellect.
Eyes Like the Huge Will of a Waking One
There is an awakening in Herbert's gaze upon the world, a vision that captures the willful dawn of consciousness and awareness in every line she crafts.
This Goddess Thing - The Woman Among Us
In "This Goddess Thing," Herbert explores the power and divinity inherent in the feminine spirit that connects all women, an undercurrent of strength that shapes the tides of society.
A Gliding Decimal Point
Herbert's mastery over language sees her effortlessly glide between themes, like a decimal point adding magnitude or shrinking a number to its essence—always with precision, always with grace.
Her Heart Is a Trained Mechanism
Far from cold calculation, Herbert's trained heart is a beacon of emotional intelligence, each beat a deliberate choice in the rhythm of her poetry.
Too Far Open to Adopt Camouflage
The vulnerability in Herbert's poetry is palpable, her openness eschewing the camouflage of metaphor for the stark beauty of truth.
The Sign Is Green & the Light Also
Herber's use of color imagery in her poems signals a forward march, calling readers to proceed in the pursuit of awareness and self-discovery without hesitation.
No Stops Will Be Taken—No Options Chosen—This Is a Weighty Pool
Decisions within Herbert's writings carry the gravity of deep waters—deliberate and resonant with the echoes of introspection.
A Stroll Along a Fault Line
The poet's journey is one of balance, traipsing upon the precipice of deep divides, between the personal and profound, showing us the way with her unwavering footsteps.
Tight & Sure & Over the Edge Soon
Confidence marks Herbert's poetic voice—firm, unwavering, and willing to venture over the edge into the realm of the unknown for the sake of discovery and self-expression.
In Metaphysical Plate Tectonics
Her poetry performs a dance of shifting perspectives, much like the slow-moving continents of our psyche, ever-changing and colliding to form the landscape of our inner world.
I Feel Your Eyes & the Movement of Your Thoughts Disturb My Train of Illogic
The interaction between poet and reader becomes a dance in Herbert's work; each line disrupts patterns of thought, inviting a new order of understanding.
Praise from a High School Teenage Bohemian Prom Queen from Dallas
From lofty intellectual praise to the exuberance of youthful admiration, Herbert's reel of accolades spans a wide spectrum, validating her impact across generations.
Appears in a Cyber Missive
Herbert's reach extends into the digital realm, where emails and messages carry the torch of her poetic legacy, igniting conversations in the global arena.
Woman Undone, Unclung, Unfettered, Far-flung, Far-reaching
Mary Kennan Herbert's persona, as unraveled in her poetry, is a testament to the unbound spirit, untethered by convention, reaching into the multidimensional space of human experience.
Moving From the Center of the Earth
The gravity of Herbert's words draws from the core—not just of our planet but of our very essence, resonating with the seismic truth of our shared humanity.
From the Bottom of Lake Baikal
Her poetry dredges the depths of the deepest freshwater body, unearthing treasures from the sediment of the subconscious and the enigmatic beauty submerged within us.
From the Epi-Center of Her Collective Ground of Being
The epicenter of Herbert's work is the shared soul of womankind, a collective grounding that finds expression in each carefully chosen word and metaphor.
Mind Gray Fox Woman
In "Mind Gray Fox Woman," Herbert embodies the cunning and adaptability of the animal, juxtaposing it with the feminine mystique, navigating the literary wilderness with an astute grace.
I Want Men to Die of Longing for Me
Herbert declares with fierce defiance, her desire for acknowledgement not from subservience but from genuine, overwhelming appreciation for her being and artistry.
So What Is This?
The question lies at the heart of Herbert's inquiry, a challenge to societal norms, and a bold assertion of autonomy over one's sexuality, pleasure, and creative force.
I Feel So Happy So Full, So Free
Amid the raw expression of longing, there is an unmatched joy in Herbert's poetry, a celebration of self-love and unshackled existence.
It Makes Me Wanna Fuck Everybody
Provocative and unapologetic, Herbert pushes the boundaries with her honesty, her sexuality not a commodity but an extension of her joyous, artistic impulse.
What Happens to All This Energy?
The poet contemplates the wellsprings of creativity and life-force, questioning the outlets available in a world bounded by conventions, seeking channels for the deluge of artistic and sensual vitality.
You Can Only Dance So Much
Herbert recognizes the limits of conventional expressions of joy and fervor, dancing on the edge of needing more, pushing against the boundaries of acceptability and tradition.
What Do You Do With All That Energy
The unanswered question lingers, a testament to the inexhaustible creative and sexual power that courses through the poet, seeking release in a myriad of forms.
All That Rolling on the Grass
Herbert's imagery of unbridled joy and freedom, the rolling on the grass becomes symbolic of an unrestrained connection to nature, to self, and to the ecstatic potential of life.
I Wanna Fall Down With Rolling on the Grass Women
The poet calls to kindred spirits, to women who share her longing for liberation and joyous abandon, to join her in a physical and metaphysical communion.
I Want Gray Fox Women Rolling on the Grass With Me
Her insistence on the presence of the gray fox women is a call to arms, summoning those who embody wisdom, agility, and the fierce grace of the wild.
I Wanna Ring the Red Bell for Gray Fox Women and Kennels Full of Moaning Men
In a crescendo of desire and demand, Herbert invokes a world where the gray fox women reign supreme, and men acknowledge their majesty with songs of yearning.
To Let Me Know What to Do With All This Energy
The bell tolls as a beacon for understanding and direction, seeking an answer to the perennial question of destiny for the raw, potent energy that defines humanity's creative and sensual core.
Connecting Poetry and Travel
As we traverse the landscapes Mary Kennan Herbert illuminates in her poetry, we are compelled to explore not only the inner workings of the self but also the outer realms of the world. Each stanza holds a ticket to a new destination—a mental expedition akin to the journeys we embark upon across the Earth. Much like setting foot on unknown soil, delving into Herbert's vibrant lexicon invites us into uncharted emotional territories, etching pathways on the heart much as travel imprints memories on the mind.
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