Lament for the Loss of a Poetry Section |
Issue 16
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It was hard to find poetry books
even traveling to a locally-owned store that might have poetry, even a chapbook, that wasn’t popular, emotional fluff or a reprinted triage of words fraught with sophistry and poetry therapy, certainly no treatment of free verse expression. The store’s façade was painted like a cartoonish wall of books. I entered to a bell choir. Still, I walked around defenses of a maze of shelves to the back of the store and the smell of postmortem paper. Not there, not anywhere, I sighed. Poetry wasn’t a dedicated section somewhere near, anywhere to be found. There were old books—gifts inscribed to friends, snooty bookplates like deeds, spines with Dewey Decimal band aides and prices penciled tragically on front free end papers. Some claimed, "first editions," lacking bibliophile authority, on mixed-up, makeshift shelves. There in a soliloquy, while browsing, I lost hope, but looked to the books, How are we to make choices? How are we to know love and forgiveness, |
Kenneth Boyd, winner and judge of the Royal Palm Literary Award (RPLA), is a neurodivergent poet and former jazz musician. His poetry appears in Wayfarer Magazine, Unlost, Flora Fiction, Of Poets & Poetry, Viewless Wings, The Ekphrastic Review, and elsewhere. His collection, Grasshopper Dreams, was released in 2023. Kenneth is a graduate of the UCLAx Creative Writing Program and an Assistant Editor of Poetry at Southland Alibi Magazine. He enjoys life in the South with his wife and dog, Stella.
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