Bootlegging Apples on the Road to Redemption

Kimberly Fahner is the author of You Must Imagine the Cold Here.

The author of this first collection of poems says that her work is an
attempt to create “the sound and image of soul.” Her lyrical and
evocative poems express the search for self through the theme of the
journey.

Irish nuances abound. There is, for instance, the “Killybeg’s girl
/ with a cut-and-come-again-cake smile,” the loving tribute to a
traditional Irish musician in “A Boast to Kavanagh,” and the
reference to Bauheen Moor in “I Have Stumbled.” The music of the
Gaelic language is clearly emphasized in poems like “Tomorrow to
Donegal,” “It Behooves Me,” and “OhmyOmagh.”

Grace’s use of repetition results in occasional monotony that would
perhaps be less evident in a live reading of the poems. The book’s
cover design is inviting, but the photographs of Ireland that accompany
the poems sometimes distract the reader from the elegance of the
poet’s own images.