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Pink Elephant
Poetry. The poems in PINK ELEPHANT present an opening where the door didn't quite latch shut, a personal view of childhood confined in a room with violence and trauma. With every new scene, either palpable or surreal, the eyes don't dare turn away; instead they are transfixed, sometimes on the multi–faced monster, other times on the Survival. Rachel McKibbens's debut collection of poems is offered again in this new second edition, where an interview with the author flips the light switch on and informs our understanding of this unflinchingly bold young life story.
- GenresPoetry
99 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
5 people are currently reading
998 people want to read
About the author
Rachel McKibbens
14 books154 followersPoet, activist, playwright and essayist Rachel McKibbens is the author of the poetry collections Into the Dark and Emptying Field (2013) and Pink Elephant (2009). The Rumpus wrote of Pink Elephant, “McKibbens awakens and haunts with selfless honesty.” Her poems, short stories, essays and creative non-fiction have been featured in numerous journals and blogs, including Her Kind, The Los Angeles Review, The Best American Poetry Blog, The Nervous Breakdown, The Rumpus, The London Magazine, The Acentos Review, World Literature Today, Radius, and The American Poetry Journal.
McKibbens is a well-known member of the poetry slam community: she is a nine-time National Poetry Slam team member, has appeared on eight NPS final stages, and coached the New York louderARTS poetry slam team to three consecutive final stage appearances, was the 2009 Women of the World Poetry Slam champion and the 2011 National Underground Poetry Slam individual champion. McKibbens appeared on two seasons of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry Jam and was featured in the poetry slam documentary Slam Planet in 2006 at SXSW. In 2011, McKibbens was commissioned by The Getty Center in Los Angeles to write and perform an ekphrastic poem for their multi-media poetry event Dark Blushing.
McKibbens is a well-known member of the poetry slam community: she is a nine-time National Poetry Slam team member, has appeared on eight NPS final stages, and coached the New York louderARTS poetry slam team to three consecutive final stage appearances, was the 2009 Women of the World Poetry Slam champion and the 2011 National Underground Poetry Slam individual champion. McKibbens appeared on two seasons of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry Jam and was featured in the poetry slam documentary Slam Planet in 2006 at SXSW. In 2011, McKibbens was commissioned by The Getty Center in Los Angeles to write and perform an ekphrastic poem for their multi-media poetry event Dark Blushing.
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
May 20, 2025
Ok so I read ‘Pink Elephants’ by Ava Reynolds.
Not this book here.
But Ava’s book isn’t on goodreads yet.
And the scanner isn’t working.
But I had to just drop a review in the meantime.
This collection of short stories is so fucking good. So good.
Especially ‘Swan Song’ and ‘A Breakdown in Communication’.
But she saves best for last with ‘Grief is the Thing in the Purple Waistcoat’.
Wonderful writing.
Tension. Surrealism. Horror. Like walking down a bendy mendy windy findy road with a different coloured wardrobe every 5 metres begging you to open it.
Not this book here.
But Ava’s book isn’t on goodreads yet.
And the scanner isn’t working.
But I had to just drop a review in the meantime.
This collection of short stories is so fucking good. So good.
Especially ‘Swan Song’ and ‘A Breakdown in Communication’.
But she saves best for last with ‘Grief is the Thing in the Purple Waistcoat’.
Wonderful writing.
Tension. Surrealism. Horror. Like walking down a bendy mendy windy findy road with a different coloured wardrobe every 5 metres begging you to open it.
February 16, 2011
Thank you. Your poems kicked me in the spine, reminding me how to stand.
The Rumpus published a review I wrote on this collection. Worth reading, the review, and especially the work.
She is a gift to the literary world.
http://therumpus.net/2011/02/like-an-...
The Rumpus published a review I wrote on this collection. Worth reading, the review, and especially the work.
She is a gift to the literary world.
http://therumpus.net/2011/02/like-an-...
September 26, 2021
"There was the summer you ignored me so hard it gave me bad posture" (pg 14) "Cheeks bright as a slap" (pg 21) Pink Elephant is worth visiting again and again. It remains forever relevant.
December 19, 2023
A collection of poems about trauma, family, abuse, survival, and love.
from The First Time: "It's why you are here now, / carrying a bag full of things / that will not help you, why houses / fill with those less deserving, // why saints hold their hands out / to everyone but you."
from The Doll: "His frustration / turned on me, the way fault can only be found / in the one whose name fits most in the mouth."
from A Sunday Cross-Examination of My Future Next Husband: "If you are to love me, / you must believe every word of this. / Every haunted girl you knew before me / has been a warning, and in the mouth of each girl: / a brick with my window's name on it."
from The First Time: "It's why you are here now, / carrying a bag full of things / that will not help you, why houses / fill with those less deserving, // why saints hold their hands out / to everyone but you."
from The Doll: "His frustration / turned on me, the way fault can only be found / in the one whose name fits most in the mouth."
from A Sunday Cross-Examination of My Future Next Husband: "If you are to love me, / you must believe every word of this. / Every haunted girl you knew before me / has been a warning, and in the mouth of each girl: / a brick with my window's name on it."
November 2, 2019
In some of these poems, I knds there was a deeper meaning and I searched for it. But in other poems...there were just dead ends and boring images. I would give this book a 3-3.5/5 because the author has talent but some of these poems just fall flat.
January 8, 2022
Beautiful poems, but I should have read these before the other works of the author. It is her first book which is clear, but it is nice seeing how far she has since come. Still worth reading, but something to remember.
June 13, 2017
I devoured this book. It's a raw pink wound that contains multitudes—universes of pain and evolution. And genius in its craft. I expect to be a better poet, and a fiercer woman for having read it.
October 23, 2018
this memoir in poems is one of the most devastating & beautiful & painful things I have ever read and at times I could hardly bear to continue reading but kept my eyes on this magic regardless
December 21, 2023
This collection was so devastating what
July 10, 2024
WOW. at a loss for words.
November 4, 2024
20241104 ◊ Brutal fury that I understand & wish nobody had to.
October 9, 2025
Fuck me. Astonishing.
December 11, 2009
"For me, poetry has no point in existing if it’s not to be a prompt or aid to political and ethical change." - John Kinsella, Australian Poet.
The First Time. A quiet start to the book. Putting coins and dolls on train tracks. Danger. God. Children wandering alone. The non-appeal to saints who provide for others. The mother. "It's funny to me now...", a gentle introduction to the following dramas.
Central Park, Mothers' Day. Every parent's private nightmare, the gift from their child that they didn't recognize for what it was, rejected, scolded for some unimportant transgression, for breaking something or taking something - in this poem Rachel follows the consequences of this to the limit through the years, even down to the end with "drunk at your father's funeral". The quick succession of tragic images makes you ask, how many times did I do that? What might have been if I had not? Rachel notices and grieves and gives voice to the full, real person that is inside every "child". But this tragedy is inside herself, inside her own, not inflicted on her by another.
Honey. Rachel at play? Children at play, but not idealized. Dirt, poverty and childish delight even at the loss of teeth. Innocence gently equated with stupidity?
Doggie Bag Etiquette. There is a sign on the door: here is where the pain starts. Rachel uses longer lines, more words rushing along, the meaning carried from line to line until the short chill, in wait at the end: "if you were treated well".
[More later:]
The First Time. A quiet start to the book. Putting coins and dolls on train tracks. Danger. God. Children wandering alone. The non-appeal to saints who provide for others. The mother. "It's funny to me now...", a gentle introduction to the following dramas.
Central Park, Mothers' Day. Every parent's private nightmare, the gift from their child that they didn't recognize for what it was, rejected, scolded for some unimportant transgression, for breaking something or taking something - in this poem Rachel follows the consequences of this to the limit through the years, even down to the end with "drunk at your father's funeral". The quick succession of tragic images makes you ask, how many times did I do that? What might have been if I had not? Rachel notices and grieves and gives voice to the full, real person that is inside every "child". But this tragedy is inside herself, inside her own, not inflicted on her by another.
Honey. Rachel at play? Children at play, but not idealized. Dirt, poverty and childish delight even at the loss of teeth. Innocence gently equated with stupidity?
Doggie Bag Etiquette. There is a sign on the door: here is where the pain starts. Rachel uses longer lines, more words rushing along, the meaning carried from line to line until the short chill, in wait at the end: "if you were treated well".
[More later:]
July 8, 2017
Rachel McKibbens, along with Mindy Nettifee, gave a reading last October at my friend Stephanie's arts collective in Chicago. Reading their books makes me wish I'd been there that night instead of in class in Michigan.
October 21, 2009
My review at the Poetry Foundation blog:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harri...
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harri...
June 19, 2010
Lovely in a very intimate and dark way.
May 20, 2011
Great book of poems!
July 17, 2011
Heart-wrenching, gut-wrenching, bloody bloody truth.
Rachel McKibbens is a goddess.
Oh yeah, and my copy of this book is SIGNED and from the Strand in NYC. No big deal.
Rachel McKibbens is a goddess.
Oh yeah, and my copy of this book is SIGNED and from the Strand in NYC. No big deal.
January 25, 2011
Rachel McKibbens Pink Elephant lodged itself under my diaphram and left me completely breathless.
Read
July 28, 2011Rachel McKibbens is a phenomenal poet, never failing to deliver a gut punch.
September 20, 2011
Harrowing.
Want to read
September 29, 2012I red it in Arabic + it's a nice book
December 23, 2012
Hardcore, emotional thunder that struck a powerful cord deep within me. I am now a fan.
February 13, 2013
visceral and raw
July 14, 2013
they are REALLY good poems, but they are dark, and they are deep. The truth most definitely rings true and makes you reflect on your own childhood and growing up. A brutal truth.
September 24, 2013
Devastating. And excellent.
October 5, 2013
This. Yes.
February 12, 2015
This is a gorgeous hurricane.
August 28, 2016
Exceptional, raw, guts exposed...the language is so fluid and heart rendering. Loved it!
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews