Kristen McHenry

Kristen McHenry

Indigo Ink Press Publications: Triplicity: Poems in Threes (Flip Edition, September 2011)

Kristen McHenry is a resident of Seattle, Wash., and is a poet by night, non-profit program manager by day. She has her bachelor’s degree in theatre arts and filmmaking from The Evergreen State College.

Among other publications, her work has been seen in Bare Root Review, Numinous Magazine, Tiferet Journal, Sybil’s Garage, Big Pulp Magazine, and the anthology, “Many Trails to the Summit,” published by Rose Alley Press. She was a top five finalist in the 2009 National Poetry Competition “Project Verse” (Limp Wrist Magazine). Her chapbook “The Goatfish Alphabet” was runner-up in qarrtsiluni’s 2009 chapbook contest, and was published by Naissance Press (April 2010).

Kristen is co-editor for Voices of Dyslexia, serves on the editorial staff for Literary Bohemian, and teaches creativity workshops in her “spare” time.

She lives in the Ballard neighborhood with two cats, three fire-bellied toads, and one husband. She loves to sing, but only in the car with all of the windows rolled up.

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Kristen is available for readings and signings in the greater Seattle area. Please contact us to schedule an event.

Related Authors: Chella Courington

Sample Poem from Triplicity: Poems in Threes

Spock: A Romance in Quotes

Triplicity: Poems in Threes by Kristen McHenryWe met by chance on a Sunday
at the town aquarium.
He stood aloof in the octopus exhibit,
gazing at their writhing tentacles, and looking
inscrutably pained. He turned to me and said,
“They regard themselves as aliens
in their own world, a condition
with which I am somewhat familiar.”
I fell in love right there.

He came over to drink vodka
gimlets on my porch swing,
and read to me from “Entropy.”
At first he was a bit standoffish,
but when we finally did make love,
he whispered, “Random chance
seems to have operated in our favor.”

He moved in on Tuesday.

When we fought,
he would squint at me with his satanic eyes
then say something unarguably rational,
without rancor, without
smashing plates. That was the thing about Spock:
he could be always be trusted
not to smash things, not to shove his fists
through the drywall in a rage, or fly
into a temper on the freeway.
He just dealt with things. For a while, it was bliss.

Then his unflappable
demeanor began to try my nerves,
at which time he observed, “It is curious
how often you humans manage to obtain
that which you do not want.”

On Friday, he said he was leaving,
not just me, but the planet. “Nowhere
am I more desperately needed
as among a shipload of illogical humans.”

When I threw myself onto the futon and sobbed,
he stroked my hand and said, “You may find that having
is not so pleasing a thing as wanting. This is not
logical, but it is often true.”

When I bellowed that he was a cold-hearted
bastard, he looked away. “I am what I am,
and if there are self-made
purgatories, then we all have to live in them. Mine
can be no worse than someone else’s.”

And when I shattered all the plates and screamed
that he was throwing away a beautiful thing,
he just shrugged. “It has always been easier
to destroy than to create.”

Then he packed his belt and tunic, and walked out.

Spock’s been gone a while now.
I still wear his Command badge on my bathrobe.
At night, I fumble for it, and hear
his sonorous voice: “Logic
is the beginning of wisdom; not the end.”

Acclaim for Triplicity: Poems in Threes & Kristen McHenry

Reviews on LibraryThing  |  Reviews on GoodReads  |  Reviews on Amazon

“In Kristen McHenry’s brilliantly conceived chapbook, Triplicity, we meet seven unlikely and unforgettable trios – ”Gift Horses,” “Pondering Pigs,” “Casualties” – all with something to say about bodies. But even in the weightiest situations, McHenry’s deft writing is both embodied and transcendent; she finds and insists on connection, and through it sets us free.”

Beth Adams, co-managing editor, qarrtsiluni online literary magazine

“In Triplicity: Poems in Threes, Kristen McHenry offers seven marvelously eclectic groups of narratives and monologues. Most of the poems’ voices are distinctly feminine yet not prettily conventional. The mother, sister, fire-breather, prostitute, gardener, acrobat–all can be and are ‘feminine.’ In Triplicity, McHenry illustrates how such diverse women share a common struggle to gain self-acceptance while deepening empathy for each other. For McHenry, independence can co-exist with love and passion can inform understanding. Here, then, is complexity worked into life-affirming balance–and excellent poetry.”

David D. Horowitz, publisher, Rose Alley Press

“Kristen McHenry presents woman as fire-breather, as cactus, as one who rages and rejects penitence. Her visceral poems don’t shy from what is damp, steamy, loose, neither clavicles nor veins, offal nor splitting. They consciously negotiate roles and resist expectations. McHenry’s is a voice of uncompromising honesty and her poems turn over transformation after transformation.”

Jen Pearson, reviewer, PoetryLog
(www.poetrylog.wordpress.com)

“Kristen McHenry is at her best when describing the body. Triplicity is rife with pain and trouble, but even in moments of tragedy, McHenry’s speakers are sharp and insightful. Her frenetic cataloging of the natural world–animal, vegetable, mineral–makes these poems thick and ‘deep as trees,’ while moments of lyric meditation ‘fly free like loose-winged birds.’ Like the very best poetry, Triplicity is ‘an amuse-bouche / to stave off greater hungers’.”

Sara Tracey, author of Flood Year

“Your poems wake one up like a slap in the face, much needed. So sharp and ironic, but also heart-breaking and evocative. Your way of seeing the world makes it bigger, makes the blood pulse and beat in its veins–you sing a dangerous love song and I’m pleased to have listened. I’m still listening.”

Mario Abbatiello, poet

In Aristotelian thought, the triangle is the symbol of perfect harmony. This sense of three has come through the ages, from religion to nursery rhymes, to indicate wholeness. Kristen McHenry constructs her collection using seven section titles with three poems in each section to explore surprising aspects of our society and the struggles of being female. Read more…

Barbara P. Lovenheim
Prick of the Spindle Volume 5.4