White Goat Black Sheep by Kimberly Ann Priest

Haunted, harrowing, blessed—these intertwined, incantatory lyrics, spoken to a sister, dream a winding river from suffering toward a truer redemption. “Oh to be like a river,” sings this voice, “Oh to move like a sleep.” And, as witnesses to Kimberly Priest‘s brilliant dream world—wrought from pain and transformed, we too are carried toward solace. Here, in your hands, is a gem of a first book.

–Robert Fanning, author of Our Sudden Museum, American Prophet, and The Seed Thieves

In White Goat, Black Sheep,” Kimberly Ann Priest offers us a set of intimate lyrics; secrets breathed between hands pressed palm to palm.  Each break, each space, each indentation is a reverent silence. “I will contain us, build an altar, bind it with / my feet.” This cycle of poems taps into our ancient stories—the bond between siblings, the transformation of girl into tree, the romance of space between life and afterlife—while also offering fresh, discerning edge.  I will ask the skin how it thrives,” these poems urge. “I ask the skin to speak to me.”

–Sandra Beasley, author of Count the Waves and I Was the Jukebox