No Longer Dressed in Black - Kenny A. Chaffin

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by kennyc

I'd like to thank Betty for the nice review on Amazon. I've also gotten a bit of interest on the Goodreads site as well with a nice review there. As well as a few other off-line comments. I'm finding it interesting (but not unexpected as I've seen it in workshops and forums) how different poems connect with different people. It is always heartening to an author to know you've been able to connect with a reader.

I find it interesting how different poems connect with ME. I must have a hidden dark side.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by bjones6416

I find it interesting how different poems connect with ME. I must have a hidden dark side.

Hey, they are not ALL dark.

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Hey, they are not ALL dark.

No, just my favorite ones.

[kennyc]

You're so evil!

I knew it, I just knew it!

[kennyc]

A mother's day poem from my collection for today on this Mothers Day (U.S.A.):


"Mama’s Grave"

When everyone else had gone away
I stood and watched the men --
grave-diggers, the coverer-uppers.

They hung back giving space
in the tree shrouded graveyard
because they’d seen it before.

My need to be there -- alone, the last,
the oldest son’s goodbye. I bent
and scooped the dry clodded earth

Rolling it ‘round in my hand.
I dropped it carefully clump by clump
as the men stood silently by.

I heard each thump, each sound, each tap
on the silver-gray lidded box echo inside,
a hollow sound, a knocking at the door.

[kennyc]

Thought I'd share the title poem from this collection which is of course one of my favorites



No Longer Dressed in Black

They no longer dress in black,
they’ve become accountants,
clerks, engineers and thieves.

Cobain is dead and so is Lennon
that mop-top leader of revolutions.

Now middle-American angst
replaces the illusion, replaces the
heroes pushed beyond death, the
black that waits for us all.

Only the Goths are left and they
never bought into it anyway, their
blackness worn only on their sleeves,
insulation from society.

They used to wear black, these clerks,
thieves, accountants; clinging to it,
as if to hope, but knowing there was no
challenge, no future, no reason to believe.

They were pulled inexorably
into society, depressed enough
to go along, depressed enough
to suck the blackness into their bodies
and smile as they hand you your change.


.

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Thought I'd share the title poem from this collection which is of course one of my favorites



No Longer Dressed in Black

They no longer dress in black,
they’ve become accountants,
clerks, engineers and thieves.

Cobain is dead and so is Lennon
that mop-top leader of revolutions.

Now middle-American angst
replaces the illusion, replaces the
heroes pushed beyond death, the
black that waits for us all.

Only the Goths are left and they
never bought into it anyway, their
blackness worn only on their sleeves,
insulation from society.

They used to wear black, these clerks,
thieves, accountants; clinging to it,
as if to hope, but knowing there was no
challenge, no future, no reason to believe.

They were pulled inexorably
into society, depressed enough
to go along, depressed enough
to suck the blackness into their bodies
and smile as they hand you your change.


.

One of my favorites!

[kennyc]

(A Father's Day poem from my collection No Longer Dressed in Black)

Old Barn

I see it each day on my drive to work
weathered and worn -- gray as ash
tilting foolishly into the wind.

Its corners worn down at horse-shoulder height --
sunlight and rain through the roof. I
stop one day in my morning rush
to take a closer look.

A door blows open with a screech
and I hear my father yell “Don’t let the
damn cows out what’s wrong with you boy?”
and it takes me back to that time.

To my dreams of the future
and what it would bring
and how little I knew of life.

I think of him now in bed with no legs
leaning into his final hour and
I wonder if he thinks of those days.
I wonder if he dreams.

4/15/01 – Kenny A. Chaffin

[jgaiser]

Thanks Kenny. My Dad passed away this past October and though we were never really close, this has turned into a tough weekend.

[kennyc]

Hugs Jerry! Same here we were never really close, but there's still that bond.

[kennyc]

Just a bump for the heck of it and to say this book is still available free from the Amazon Lending Library (Kindle prime owners). And to share one of the poems with you:


Menace to Society

As I curse the traffic and attempt to merge
she bursts up behind me
crossing the gore zone
forcing her way into the fray.

I only catch a glimpse in my rear view mirror
a cigarette dangling from her red lips
ashes about to fall
one hand filled with Starbucks
the other clutching a mascara brush.

God knows what she’s driving with.



.

[DixieGal]

I just now saw this, went and got it.

[kennyc]

Thanks! Dixie!

[kennyc]

Since Halloween is upon us again:

Blood-Red Moon

Must write the poem
of the blood-red moon
on the days before Hallows Eve

for those vacant souls
on the internet
in the village of Mobileread

They read their books
and sometimes post
but never is it known

that each and every
one of them
is so very much alone

under that serious
blood-red moon or
the bright and shiny sun

they read their books -
their electronic books
reality is less fun

Misunderstood,
vacant and vain
they prey it doesn’t rain

for if it should
they live in fear
their battery might drain

and then they’d be
even more alone
alone and ebookless

and then would come
the night of the dead
no reader to be found

ebookless zombies
roaming the land
searching for pbook town.


----------------
My first poetry collection - No Longer Dressed in Black - is available as a kindle ebook:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007SQ9JYC

It includes a selection of poems written over the last two decades (1990-2010) that were published in a variety of small magazines and journals with additional new and selected poems.

[kennyc]

This book is free today as part of my Solstice give-away.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007SQ9JYC

Enjoy! And thank you for reading! Let me know what you think either directly or post a review.