Kendra Grant Malone - If this book had human hands beyond its gorgeous shoulders it would tickle you to death

Kendra Grant Malone, Everything is Quiet, The Scrambler Books, 2010.

“Everything is Quiet is a full-length poetry book comprised of individual poems about love, life, and loss. Just kidding. Everything is Quiet is a woman sitting calmly near a glass window, hungover and smoking a cigarette in the aftermath of dealing with strange lovers who shush her, smack her, ask her to be more vocal, and for some reason, really enjoy dirty period sex. Everything is Quiet is a person riding a train alone in a big world with an open sky, trying to remember what happened last night, but not really caring.” – Matthew Savoca

“Kendra Grant Malone contains several hundred people. Likewise, her words seem to protect several hundred other words beneath their giddy, precise calm. Here is a mother and a voyeur and a pervert and a magick-making child, somewhere between them all your brand new old friend, teeming with such heat. Here is language more honest than I could ever be. I suggest you keep it close, warm. I suggest you keep an eye, as if this book had human hands beyond its gorgeous shoulders it would tickle you to death; it would hump your funny tired body, then eat your head for what you’ve seen.” – Blake Butler

“Any book that thanks ‘vodka, cocaine, and Citalopram, for making mood swings bearable and this book possible’ is likely to a strong sense of its own identity, or identities, and Kendra Grant Malone’s ‘Everything is Quiet’ certainly does. Strong: her use of language, her voice, her commitment to getting it right, even as she’s describing how she frequently gets it wrong. Sense: a good ear, a good eye, an intimate acquaintance with bodies and what (and who) they do. These fifty sexy, thoughtful, and sometimes pained poems do right by sex, love, and sometimes pain, not to mention menstrual blood, greasy hair, funny faces, and watering eyes.” – Ben Greenman

“Kendra Grant Malone’s poetry feels like your first kiss and your first razorblade cut all at once. Reading these poems reminds me of listening to Johnny Cash or The Gun Club when it’s dark and you’re alone, and you realize for the first time that everything is probably not going to be OK, but at least the music’s good. She is an angel of mourning, she is brilliant, and there is no other poet like her.” – Michael Schaub

"I’ve been waiting for Kendra Grant Malone’s debut collection for what seems like a very long time. I’ll never forget the first time I read one of her poems. It was like a grand canyon had opened up in my head, ready for Malone’s voice to fill it with endless streams of horrifically real and beautiful things. Here, in Everything is Quiet, Malone fills our heads with the period sex in which “it looked like someone had been/ murdered in my room,” the man who “survived for many months/ on a life raft” and “while adrift/…developed romantic feelings/about spaghetti and meatballs,” and the “hellfire” she “would surely like to” “put into a mouth.” Within the quiet and noisy spaces in this book, Malone shows icy strength to make clear the time in which she finally “understood/ that a man once/ broke my/ mother’s ribs/ for sport” and that “we are the animals.” And how could we not listen to a poet whose “metaphysical self is/ a large white frigidaire”? We must. We must listen and we must read this book. This is the voice we’ve been waiting for for a long time. With every gorgeous word in here, you can see the gentle and ferocious tide quietly overturning." - Dorothea Lasky

"I liked this book a lot, as I expected. Kendra Grant Malone is one of my favorite contemporary poets. These poems are about a woman living in New York City, drinking wine, crying, having sex, talking to her boyfriend, feeling angry, pitying herself, chasing pigeons, reflecting on her family members, her disabled brother - so many things.
The poem "Sylvia Plath At Sixteen" made me cry on a bus.
"I Never Believed In God" seems like a perfect poem, if such a thing exists.
"Little Girls Are Women Somehow In Some Way."
I don't know what to say. There's a lot of human emotion in this book.
"there is really no way / for me to explain how / really very pretty and / totally enthralling you are"
"i understand you / better when / you speak your / language rather / than mine"
"i'm not sure / how many more years / i can go on with this / being the only / the only / apparently the only / the only / the only one who loves / my dear brother"
"i chase things / that no one views / as precious / so that i am not looked upon / as a monster / (although i am)"
"all i can think of / is that i want you all / to be quiet / very quiet / quiet as death / so i can think about / myself / without your cries / and wails and fits / of interpretation" - Stephen Tully Dierks

"The first thing I did when I received ‘Everything is Quiet’ by Kendra Grant Malone was read the blurbs on the back. Here’s one from Blake Butler: “Kendra Grant Malone contains several hundred people. Likewise, her words seem to protect several hundred other words beneath their giddy, precise calm. Here is a mother and a voyeur and a pervert and a magick-making child, somewhere between them all your brand new friend, teeming with such heat.” The other blurbs were equally forceful, championing the sexy, pained, and dark nature of the poems. I got the feeling that ‘Everything is Quiet’ had some powerful content in store.
The book certainly opens with a bang with the poem, ‘A Kicked Pigeon’
i never told you
that week when i
came to stay
with you
in new york
and refused to
sleep with you
that one day
while you were
at work
i accidentally
kicked a pigeon
to death
The second poem ‘Insane Or Irate, Neither Of The Words Accurately Describe The Feeling That They Indicate,’ recounts how one feels when a movie ends. It’s a fitting entrance into Malone’s world.
the most mediocre
point of life
that gets
experienced
many times
yes, i think that moment
is what people mean
when they use the word
bourgeois
This poem reads like Malone’s mission statement: to shatter the ordinary. She seems to embrace odd situations as a way of realizing one’s true character. And as Kendra details squatting on all fours so that her disabled brother can eat hummus and potato salad off of her back, I can’t help but feel grateful that the poet would share such a thing with the reader.
I would describe the protagonist in these poems as uninhibited. The situations in the poems involve debauchery, violence, and drug use. Reading them is both discomforting and exhilarating.
The poet often fantasizes about violence, occasionally practicing it. In one poem, she imagines crushing the bones of a lover’s face and listening to them go “snap snap snap.” In another, she kicks a pigeon to death. Then, in another poem, she does a one-eighty and despairs over a flattened kitten found in the street.
I noticed some interesting quotes on the ‘thank yous’ page, like:
“to all the lovers from this year and last, thank you for the material, you assholes.” Malone writes of many ex-lovers throughout the collection. Sometimes she has empathy for her partners, sometimes she spurns them, and sometimes, with no insight to be found in the aftermath of an affair, she can only stew in emptiness. Even during bitter moods, however, Malone is not afraid to express vulnerability. In one poem, she falls down in the shower and when her friend tries to help her up, she says, “no, it’s better this way.”
Malone is ever aware of the subtle dynamics of a relationship. Many of her phrases illuminate the deeper motives that conversations often mask, or attempt to:
i have this friend
who is dominating
in the strangest ways
he often disagrees with
my statements only to
repeat them back to me
replacing one word
with a synonym of that word
Often this understanding of people is genuinely tender, like in a poem about meeting a friend for drinks on her friend’s birthday:
there is really no way
for me to explain how
really very pretty and
totally enthralling you are
without coming on to you
which would be bad
because i think you would have been a wonderful
mother for me
Like Matthew Savoca’s long love poem with descriptive title, the cover of this book perfectly captures the feel of the writing. The image of butterflies landing on a despairing face suits the poet’s oscillation between tender and pained moods. However, if this writing was purely bi-polar, it would fall flat. Including 50 poems, this book contains a dynamic range of topics such as hanging out, relishing the beauty of life, and recognizing the significance of family.
I appreciate ‘Everything is Quiet’ for its ability to dive into realistic subject matter without sugarcoating anything. For me, the most affecting parts are about Kendra’s friendships and about her relationship with her brother. In the presence of allies, the poet is able to cut through the confusion of life and discover something more." - Dan Tarnowski