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Featured Poem of the Month
Kevin McLaughlin, Poet, Buddhist lecturer, Night Heron Co-Founder, and mentor to an unwieldy community of poets and artists, sits down to talk to BTS about his life and work.
NO TRAVEL BROCHURE PREPARED ME FOR THIS
One dyed strand knotted
then another, until sufficient
beauty to admire, walk upon, sit.
I peer into a room of carpets,
no one there. I swear I overheard
a word or two. From that snippet
I weave an intimate conversation.
Fragments possess power. And absence
-- no matter how minute – the most audible
of voice.
Kit Kennedy
http://www.poetrybites.blogspot.com
Poet-in-Residence SF Bay Times
Poet-in-Residence herchurch
...and now....
As my old friend, Kevin McLaughlin, talked, I typed on the borrowed Underwood while a thin wisp of cigarette smoke curls upward through the sun shining in through ancient grimy windows until a slow moving black ceiling fan breaks it into dust particles that drift almost weightlessly in the air. I don’t have an ancient high ceilinged office, an Underwood, nor do either one of us smoke (thank goodness!).
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We were meeting in the old Post Office Arcade in historic downtown Stuart, Florida. An unnamed mutual friend allowed us use of his private office overlooking first 29 SW Seminole St, then, more grandly, the St Lucie River. He also loaned me his Underwood, and as he is as big of a fan of Kevin as I am, he kept popping in, lighting a smoke, taking a puff and then popping back out while the smoke curled away. He kept me in fresh ground black coffee. Kevin sipped ice water, more in keeping with his Buddhist tastes.
The Interview
BTS: How did you come to poetry?
Kevin: Even in grammar school, I felt an affinity for poetry. By poetry I mean “the best words in the best order,” the realm of metaphor, imponderables, and the supra-normal. Poetry uses words to get beyond words.