KENNETH NORMAN COOK

KENNETH

NORMAN COOK

POETRY IN BLUE

Clouds of cotton drift slowly by,

floating gaily in the crystal air

and smiling at the Earth through

a cool, summery sea breeze.

(Black thunderheads rumble

and roll in the gray, ominous sky,

flashing angry bolts of fire

and grumbles of watery warning.)

The artists and poets are singing

the praises of precarious nature

and creating soulful works in

snowy white and joyous rainbow.

(I hunch over the yellowed page

and scribble out the sad words

emanating from a mind of dark

depression and a heart that

can only write in a lonely

sardonic style saturated in deep

indigo - a poetry colored blue.)

HAMMER OF IRON

I came upon

a hammer of iron

blasting through

the night

and destroying

the darkness

while a thousand

starving children

dreamed

of black

rusty voices

screaming

across the sky

as the hammer

kept on laughing

into the face

of the dying

deserted earth

TURNING AWAY

You stand in shimmering light,

with your wavy hair and sparkling eyes

enchanting all who cross your path,

while your dazzling white smile

hypnotizes the world, drawing people

to you like a magnet

and your aura of charm

entices all the men you meet,

capturing their weak, fluttering hearts

and dropping them at your feet,

where they grovel in pathetic infatuation.

In the dark gray shadows I stand,

lost in a forgotten corner

where I burn, sweat, tremble and cry,

silently praying to anything;

begging and bargaining

like a grief-stricken widower.

There is a chasm of black emptiness between us

that can never be filled and never be crossed,

and so I’ll turn away… I’ll go… I’ll leave.

I can no longer stand here alone and unnoticed,

watching you with this sick, fiery desire

that consumes my heart and incinerates my brain.

So I’ll turn away… I’ll go… I’ll leave.

If only I can convince my eyes to look away,

and my feet to take that first step.

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. Kenneth has a fifth book, featuring erotic poetry and limericks, due to be published this coming summer (2018).