Splayed ~ Christopher McCurry

About the Book:

Christopher McCurry’s first chapbook, Splayed, is a book of love poems.

About the Author:

Christopher McCurry teaches high school English and is a junior editor at Accents Publishing. His poems appear in Blood Lotus, anderbo.com, Los Angeles Review, The Chaffey Review, and Limestone. He is currently a student at the Bread Loaf School of English, where he is on a generous fellowship from the C.E. and S. Foundation. He lives in Lexington, Kentucky with his wife and daughter.

Reviews:

It is rare to see an author today serve up universal experiences and hand them over with such humility. It is that humility that gives this uncommon poetry of ordinary happenings strength. The prose is stripped of pomp and presumption, leaving the reader facing the author’s perfectly clear mirror that is held before us. And this is what Christopher McCurry has done best of all, not only has he stripped experiences down to their raw parts and presented them for our examination, but in the process, and before we know what has happened, he has stripped us as well.

~ John, Amazon.com Customer

No one would be surprised to hear that I loved every page of this book, table of contents (certainly dedication) included. But I am a reader as well as a supporter. I’ve consumed books of poetry since I was a young teen, and as a reader of poetry, I consumed Chris’ chapbook as greedily as many other favorite volumes. I enjoy these poems so much because they strike a perfect balance between art and life. Some poets, I think, in the attempt to perfectly hide every last seam of their writing behind decorative hems, end up obscuring their poems’ central emotions and distancing themselves from the reader. Chris McCurry doesn’t do this. His poems invite the reader in to his wonderful, imperfect, intensely private-public world–ask the reader to stay awhile, make themselves at home, rifle through his papers and junk drawers. But while Chris’ poems are intimate and unaffected, they are also artfully crafted. Chris is a skilled editor. Every word that appears on his pages counts itself lucky, a survivor of several thoughtful culls.Readers of this chapbook can expect it to deliver a warm, masterfully tuned, reverberating note–and to find themselves humming that note for days after reading.
~ Eloise Lynch, Amazon.com Customer
I have never been a fan of poetry, especially contemporary or modern poetry. Splayed was a pleasant surprise. The themes in this book are universal and the poems are ones to which we all can relate. If you are unsure about your feelings towards poetry and are looking for a bridge into the genre, this book is definitely for you. I would recommend Splayed to anyone who enjoys love poems, but also to those who do not enjoy poetry at all. I guarantee you will find more than one poem in this collection that speaks to you and changes your perception of what poetry can be, as it changed mine.
~ Laura L Sykes, Amazon.com Customer
A strong word thrown out over the cover of a Rorschach that at times looks like a pelvic bone, an oncoming battleship, antlers or an explosion – and these are just the images my addled mind can bring up. The images of the cover become stronger once you take the time to read Chris McCurry’s debut chapbook. The intimacy that is created through the words allows us to inhabit the space between the characters. In poems like “Tanning” we can laugh at the magic tricks the character uses to make it sunny, an innocent act envelopes us with the energy and the hope that each snap of the fingers might clear away the clouds. In other instances, like when something beautiful is angry, we feel like intruders, like moths caught in the daylight, and try to shrink away as much as our narrator. In the end, the poems leave the reader feeling -as Leigh Anne Hornfeldt noted on the back of the book- splayed, by the mirror that is held up to our own conversations under blankets, by having to work out our own order of operations but, mostly, by the beauty of what we had just read.
~ Andrew, Amazon.com Customer
“I’m usually on the fence about poetry. Splayed was a very enjoyable read for someone who typically doesn’t love poetry. I can honestly say I enjoyed reading every poem in this chapbook. It gives the reader a very personal look inside the authors life. It’s open, it’s honest and it’s beautiful. I would recommend Splayed to poetry enthusiasts and especially to those who are like me, who don’t typically enjoy poetry. You will enjoy this entire body of work. Looking forward to more writing from the author!”~ Rebecca, Amazon.com Customer