KENNETH NORMAN COOK

KENNETH

NORMAN COOK

SHOULD HAVE BEEN

(Never Could Be)

The stale dry cake

starts to crumble,

the stiff plastic figures

on top leaning apart in

mute symbolism, while

the dusty white dress

begins to yellow

and droop as it

hangs in the closet

in silent mockery.

The lines on her long

sad face grow deeper

with the passing years

as she sits in the dark,

still parlor alone,

her eyes locked on

the empty photo album

and her mind trapped

in a place that should

have been, as she

continues reliving the

fantasy she’s created,

dwelling always in a world

that never could be.

~ Kenneth Norman Cook

ICE STORM

[Bangor, Maine - January, 1998)

Paralyzed city

The aftermath of the winter devastation

vibrates through the crippled homes and businesses,

over the ice-covered streets and across the frozen river.

The angry white holocaust has withdrawn its icy teeth

from the fragile, helpless town,

leaving an eerie silence in its freezing wake.

The demon-storm arrived with a crystalline scream,

hurling sheets of wet, infusing, glassy shards of deadliness.

Now the re-emergent sun has created a rainbow wonderland

of sparkling, eye-shocking, ice-encrusted beauty:

a fairyland of deceptive, dazzling death.

Paralyzed city

Now begins the recovery.

~ Kenneth Norman Cook

WOMAN

She shouts

into the darkness

and watches

as it dwindles

to dull

silent shadows.

She cries

into the fire

and feels

it morph

into a warm

pool of sunshine.

She marches

into the storm

and the rain

sings a melody

of her beauty

while the thunder

and lightning

crackle and explode

in a terrifying

anthem to

her endurance

and her strength.

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).