Crysta Casey’s poems, like her paintings, suggest on first encounter the appealing qualities of naive art, but that’s a gloss. Behind the good humor and bright, off-kilter details—elevator buttons, coffee spoons, the sailboat on the wall “forever sailing”—we soon sense anguish and bravery and masterful truth-telling. Any reader will recognize these reports from Marine Boot Camp, Camp Pendleton, the Psych Ward and the streets as authentic and heroically humane. I can attest that they are also unforgettable.
—Kathleen Flenniken, former Washington State Poet Laureate
A lived intensity focuses and collects at the center of Crysta Casey's Green Cammie, and the reader is immediately in a world of believable curses and small praises delivered through acute observation. The terse language seems so right for the vagaries of war. Each poem, through its fidelity to simplicity and orality, tends to illuminate a far-reaching field.
—Yusef Komunyakaa
Crysta Casey, a former Marine Corps journalist, declared herself a Resident Poet and moved to Seattle in 1980. This is her first book.
Out of print.
Afterwords
Created from manuscripts left after her death, this eBook is a collection of some of Crysta Casey's work, a number of poems having been published elsewhere, with others appearing here for the first time. Included are audio recordings of readings given by Crysta, as well as by a number of well regarded Washington State poets.
Crysta Casey, Resident Poet.
A life celebration and selection of her poetry. This eBook is a brief introduction to the late poet, Crysta Casey. A few poems, a sampling of her visual artwork, how she decided to become a poet, her struggle with schizophrenia and her battle with cancer.
Unless otherwise noted, all content © The Estate of Crysta E. Casey.
