What a welcome voice indeed: fierce, and spare—and true.
– Carl Phillips (Speak Low)
In these luminous meditations on the nature of love, imagery and the beauty of language shine. A beautiful collection.
—Jennifer MacPherson, The Comstock Review
Reviews of The Illuminations:
In her latest collection Rummel meditates on the craftsmanship of the illuminators—the vellum and the ink, the animals and the saints, and of course the words—in a series of small, dense, and colorfully embroidered poems. With her sustained concentration to detail, symbol, and objectivity, Rummel reminds us that being a writer, like being a monk, is a process of solitude, “a learning to live in the ghosted now.”
—Joel Van Valin, Whistling Shade
Rummel’s pilgrimage takes the reader on a journey to Ireland to explore her Celtic past, since, as she reveals later in the book, “When a woman visits the faith of her mother’s mother/ blessed shall she be.” As the poet travels from Ireland to France, China and Guatemala, she is forever illustrating a theme of dualism: “Like that Celtic painter/in the tower, I hold in my mind two thinks at a time.” The book is filled with beautiful, interlocked images much like the gold-flecked illuminations of the Book of Kells, or the highlights of an icon.
— Minnesota Literature
Contact Mary Kay here.
Mary Kay Rummel 