Jeffrey Kingman’s new collection Beyond That Hill I Gather (Finishing Line Press, 2021) investigates the lives of many accomplished women through biographical poems and dramatic monologues. In this age of dawning realization of the intricacies of identity, persona poems can be tricky territory. Nevertheless, Kingman manages to engage and inspire the reader with his explorations rather than to assign fixed meaning.

The women of the book range from writers like H.D. and Clarice Lispector to musicians like Billie Holiday and Cherie Currie. At the back of the book, Kingman lists his research references, including memoirs, poems, biographies, and YouTube videos. Kingman uses a source to inhabit a subject from a particular perspective, never arguing that his is a definitive version. Instead, we read Marilyn Monroe or Margaret Cho in her voice or that of a biographer as performed by Kingman.

In “Memoir of Mary Gawthorpe, Suffragist” (a great-grandaunt of the poet’s wife), Kingman writes as a subjective biographer. He laments his inability to answer questions about how the suffragist’s abuse at the hands of her father shaped her life: “We don’t know / you aren’t famous enough.” Generally, a woman needs some celebrity to provide enough information to imagine a version of her experience and thoughts. Alternatively, a woman’s personal testimony is a compelling source, such as in the poem, “Melva Kingman,” about the poet’s mother: “Pure white drifts, the sun plays it. / Imagine what’s buried. / Snow riffs to the second story.” These poems hint at the “missed opportunities” throughout history to understand the lives of anonymous women.

Kingman applies only the necessary strokes in these impressionistic poems. From “The Way Back Home: Muriel Spark”:

the earth chafes and the baby’s beak so sharp

a young woman out lost must test each thorn

she looks down through the parasol trees

wet swooshing incessant spray

leopards are harmless it’s the yellow oxalis

chases her home

Read together, the poems form a powerful tribute to the strength of women who have negotiated distinctive lives in a world dominated by men. The collection is striking for managing to be intelligent and significant, as well as a fun and compelling read.

August, 2021