This book is divided into two sections, one that focuses on the interior world, life in a house or memories of life in various places, and one that focuses on the exterior world, particularly that of the garden. Both worlds blend. They are quite separate. The garden informs the narrator’s interior life, and he also takes his interior life to the garden.
Some of the poems reflect on mythological characters, who may be as vital and present as living characters. The plants themselves are like living characters, too. There is no strong split between the natural world and the human world. Perhaps we endanger ourselves when we insist on such a split. Animals, plants, writers (dead and alive), family, and where we live comingle.
Kenneth Pobo
(he/him) grew up in Illinois and now lives in Pennsylvania with his husband and cat. His midwestern roots continue to influence his writing. He began writing at fifteen. For thirty-three years, he taught English and creative writing at Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania. In 2020, he retired from teaching-but not from writing. Many of his poems are character studies, and many include imagery from the garden. He also enjoys writing ekphrastic poems which explore his connection with other forms of art, often painting or music. He is the author of twenty-one chapbooks and nine full-length collections.
Recent books include Bend of Quiet (Blue Light Press), Loplop in a Red City (Circling Rivers), Sore Points (Finishing Line Press), Lilac and Sawdust (Meadowlark Press), Lavender Fire, Lavender Rose (BrickHouse Books), and Gold Bracelet in a Cave: Aunt Stokesia (Ethel Press). Forthcoming from Wolfson Press is a collection of poems called Raylene and Skip. His work has appeared in North Dakota Quarterly, Amsterdam Review, Asheville Poetry Review, Nimrod, Indiana Review, Mudfish, Hawaii Review, Southern Indiana Review, and elsewhere.