Where has all the summer gone? The summer was sweet The summer was salty Long days full of laughter Joy was evident under the hot sun Joy is summer, summer holds beauty beauty is a blessing The summer turns dark Cold and desperate The summer will vanish & leave but will always find its way back to us although summer is where bellowing heat resides, there are also relenting, rosy tides & in those times I think do my friends really love me? They never seem to call me The sun rises the sun falls but why do my friends never call even when I call them they still don’t talk to me So instead, I speak to the sky, the sun, the clouds, stars, moon & all the galaxies in between that stop & listen as I spill my heart like rain An aching like no other why must I continue to exist in pain for the benefit of those who don’t care to their senses understand how the world is & can be the sunlight ripped away now there is no light I can’t see where I was or should be I sat there with nothing empty inside I’ve decided I can no longer hide there’s so many words stuck in this mind of mine for we, the children of mankind teeter on the brink, between fear and success the fear of fear itself, withers away the thought of success Someday, maybe, we’ll understand why all the success consumes our minds But why do our minds crave success the thing that eats us inside & out with the consumption of our body.
Exquisite corpse: (from the French term cadavre exquis), A method by which a collection of words or images are collectively assembled. I collected these poems as I traveled through Kansas. These poems are written collectively by Kansans at readings, open mics and workshops. The titles of each poem are the locations and dates where they were assembled. They are part of Exquisite Kansas, a collection to be published at the end of my laureateship.
The Coop: A Poetry Cooperative 