Clean Coal Burn by Kip Knott
Published by Kelsay Books

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Review by A.R. Williams

Kip Knott’s Clean Coal Burn is a poetry collection focused on the natural wonder of rural Ohio (USA) endangered by coal mines, fire, and flotsam. Because the land and those who inhabit it are inextricably bound together, the poems also address generational themes and familial bonds. Appropriately, this collection is split into four parts: “Something in the Wind”, “All the Names for Thunder”, “The Birth Sounds of Lightning”, and “Leaving a Half-Life”. Each section successfully summons the reader into fresh perspectives on various themes such as love, mortality, serenity, trauma, denigration, and resolution, among others.

Nonetheless, the work is held together not only by theme but also by a particular poetic mode. As a whole, the poems contain a strong sense of place, and the writing is immediate, crafted in a mature, economical style. One gets the sense that Knott has spent considerable time carefully sculpting and wielding phrases and metaphors throughout the work. To illustrate, the poems feature souls floating like kites tied to the earth (Balloon Ride), shower water needling one to consciousness (Rust Belt Night), the sky twirling her blue dress open after rain (Unveiling the Stealth Bomber), along with many others. Such striking phrases/images are only more delightful within the context of each poem.  

Clean Coal Burn is a stunning, potent volume, which balances intimate language with sharp control resulting in poised, well-crafted poetry. I enthusiastically recommend it.

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Kip Knott currently teaches literature and composition at Columbus State in Columbus, Ohio. His writing and photography have appeared in numerous journals and magazines throughout the U.S. and abroad, including The American Journal of Poetry, Barren, Barrow Street, Beloit Fiction Journal, Gettysburg Review, La Piccioletta Barca, Long Poem, Poet Lore, The Sun, and Virginia Quarterly Review. His first full-length collection of poetry, Tragedy, Ecstasy, Doom, and so on, was published in 2020 by Kelsay Books, and his debut collection of stories, Some Birds Nest in Broken Branches, was released earlier this year by Alien Buddha Press. He is also the author of four poetry chapbooks: The Weight of Smoke (Bottom Dog Press); Whisper Gallery (Mudlark); Everyday Elegies (Pudding House); and Afraid of Heaven (Mudlark). He lives in Delaware, Ohio, with his wife, son, three cats, one dog, and a Chilean rose hair tarantula.