Beyond brutal.

Byline: Victor D. Infante 

COLUMN: TEN THINGS TO DO

Rachel McKibbens' poems are straight-razors honed so sharp that you might not automatically realize that you've been cut. McKibbens, based in Rochester, NY, writes with a deadly acuity, sparing not the slightest inch of sentiment when peering into some of the darkest recesses of the human psyche, the place where the cries of abused girls rattle in the cupboards and screams echo across desolate city streets. The temptation is to call McKibbens a brutal writer, but even that misses the point: Her strength is that empathy and unrelenting honesty walk hand-in-hand in her poems, giving her often wounded subjects the benefit of a dignity that mere sentiment doesn't afford them. Rachel McKibbens reads from her new book, "Pink Elephant," published by Cypher Press, for the Poets Asylum at 6 p.m. Sunday at Jumpin' Juice & Java, 335 Chandler St., Worcester.

ART: PHOTO