Ordinary Chaos

Book excerpt: Ordinary Chaos looks at the real, almost-real, unreal, and once-real phenomena that hide behind the veneer of ordinariness. With Kimberly Kruge's deep focus, daily life unfurls into strangeness--time and space become malleable materials as her observations of seemingly normal objects and situations expand, take on meaning beyond their appearance, and begin a life of their own. As much as the poems address the quotidian, they also consider the mysteries of mortality, awe, mysticism, comprehension, and violence. The pages are laced with an honest sense of sensitivity, fragility, and even impending condemnation--resulting in poems that are resilient but not invulnerable. Kruge, who now makes her home in Guadalajara, Mexico, also explores the immigration process and navigating an adopted country. These experiences all contribute to her transcendent exploration of physical, emotional, and psychological geography.