KENNETH NORMAN COOK

KENNETH

NORMAN COOK

THE MOUNTAIN

I stand trembling

atop an icy mountain

of hollow stone

where thin pale shoots

squirm up between

the cold gray rocks

and poke feeble heads

toward a wide sky

of heartbreaking blue -

My passion for the stars

whips and whistles

and disappears into the wind

leaving me paralyzed,

my mouth agape

and staring into chasms

of blackest nothing,

laughing hysterically at

the withering flowers

with their puny petals

that curl from shame

into dull exhaustion -

I heave a heavy sigh

for the dark hourglass

of measured silence

which trickles dry sand

in subtle but certain finality.

WAVES OF MEMORY

Here come

those waves of memory

once again -

bubbling up

into my throat

like hot black tar

and squeezing

my chest

with a grip of iron.

Here come

those waves of memory

once again -

spinning my head

like an insane carousel

and scalding

my aging brain

with manic pulses

of rhythmic fire,

while nursing my soul

with a milk born

at the breast

of a nauseating

but vigorous

nostalgia.

YOU CANNOT TOUCH ME NOW

You cannot touch me now -

You reach out

with razor-claws

and hiss at me

through blood-stained fangs

but I'm just outside your grasp

like a forgotten dream.

You cannot see me now -

You peer and gaze,

squinting your goat-eyes

of liver-disease yellow

but I'm safe inside

my darkness,

out of sight and alone.

You cannot hear me now -

You hold your breath

and quietly cock

your hairy, waxy ear

but I'm like a rumor,

for you sense me

but I'm a whisper

lost in the winter wind.

You cannot reach me now -

You jump and you grasp

but you might as well

reach for the farthest star,

for I'm gone... I'm safe...

and you cannot touch me now.

ALL POEMS COPYRIGHT 2017

KENNETH NORMAN COOK

KENNETH NORMAN COOK is an American, born in the United States and raised in California in the 1960s. (English is his native language.) It was there in Southern California, in grade school that he began to fall in love with words, through a sixth grade English assignment to write a poem about Halloween. His entry was selected to be published in the school newsletter and that started him on a lifetime sojourn through the creative world known as poetry. After living away for many years, Kenneth is back in California, where he continues to write daily. He is a regular contributor to several magazines, including Wildfire Publications Monthly Magazine, where he is a co-contributor for a section on tips for writers. He has been featured in numerous poetry anthologies and has released a newly revised edition of his poetry collection, Shadow Walk With Me. He is also the author of a second book, This Side of Nothing, a third: a collection of haiku and senryu poetry, entitled Theater of the Absurd, and a fourth: From Dark Corners and Dusty attics, which is a combination of older poems, both previously published, as well as published for the first time. Here is a writer with over one thousand poems in his writing arsenal. Be prepared for a literary roller-coaster of emotions, imagery and intense imagination, for this is the poetry of Kenneth Norman Cook.