KENNETH NORMAN COOK

KENNETH NORMAN COOK

FALLEN TOMORROW

A shaky piece of something

I vaguely call “tomorrow”

has landed at my feet

without a noise

and without an effort,

while summer birdsong

continues to chime and chirp

through the warm air,

wrapping around the trees,

with their verdant leaves

waving at the world,

while the sun keeps

casting its yellow rays

of pagan radiance

around my pounding head

as though nothing

has been altered…

nothing has changed.

But the truth screams and howls

at me like a rabid wolf,

for a trembling piece of something

I dared to call “tomorrow”

has crashed to the ground

and landed at my feet

with nothing but a sigh

and a soft whimper,

unheard by an indifferent world

shining and singing

all around me,

as though “tomorrow”

were still a hopeful dream.

KENNETH NORMAN COOK

SUNRISE ON THE COAST

A soft glowing band of orange

slowly rises over the ocean and

stretches its broad arms across

the watery horizon, dissolving

the cold licorice night with its

buttery golden rays of warmth

as the yellow orb of the morning

kisses the rocky shore and waves

its rich beams through the pines.

KENNETH NORMAN COOK

THE MUSIC OF THE MOON

There is a music that rings

through the dark night sky,

vibrates off the stars as they

twinkle, shimmer and glow,

and echoes through the trees

and across the deep valleys

while the mountains stand

in stately stillness, bouncing

the chords off their black sides

and tossing the tune from

peak to snowcapped peak.

It is the music of the moon,

and few they are indeed who

can hear the harmonies sent

out into the evening darkness

from its solemn ghostly face.

It is the music of romance

and the melody of death.

It is the music of loneliness

and the cantata of love.

It is the music of the moon,

and rare is the soul who can

hear its haunting symphony.

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, titled 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.