Poetry by Thomas Kemp – Your poet is!

I read the latest book by Thomas T. Kemp this morning and learned again why he had become my favorite author. You asked how can I say this when I compiled and edited the book for him and also had the good fortune to help him on his first book, The Road from Here to Where You Stay. Well, poetry has always been a mystery to me. I read some and wonder what it means. I read others and every word speaks to me.

And so it was with Your-Poet IS: Poetry and You. No matter how many times I have leafed through or read Thomas’s poems over the years, this morning I was surprised and amazed to read them again, new, together in this book. Precisely for this reason, Thomas is my favorite author and his poetry book explains it clearly.

Thomas speaks directly to the readers. No matter who you are, you feel that he is sitting with you, saying the words. No matter how many times he opens this book, what he reads will be fresh, new, waiting to “talk” to you. Kemp is a born storyteller. Since he had collected the poetry, he worried about the format, the punctuation and the capitalization, the misspelled words. What a fool I was to try to ensure consistency when life is not consistent and Thomas talks about life… love! I noticed that the final copy he had sent her hadn’t been used, thank goodness! Because it was rigid, consistent and absolutely totally correct.

The galley was presented to me; however, he immediately began to speak to me…had I read this poem before? Why did he seem to speak to me differently? Oh I see. Thomas has added the magic, the poetry of his words and now, finally, I understand. His changes brought meaning to the words, and in doing so, he made each one an individual message for us to receive and embrace.

Thomas’s poetry introduces his love to readers. He presents his words, his feelings…for all to see, receive and explore. All his poetry is about love. He talks about the first girl who caught his eye when he was just five years old. But he also talks about being alone, wanting to be loved as he feels his life slipping away. Thomas is real and you are introduced to him and you get to know him through his poetry. He does not hide in the sharing of it. “Plastic Flowers” tells of the pain of a woman in her life, perhaps her wife, while he leaves her waiting for her at home, waiting for her to come and enjoy dinner, perhaps bringing her some flowers. “Golden and Seventeen” shares that his time in Vietnam was a time when he lost his innocence…in many ways. In fact, there are several excerpts from his book that first attracted me to his novel. Those supposedly written by Jewelko show a sensitivity about a woman’s feelings that you might never know or hear in a man, yet you see it in the words.

There is a spiritual awareness in many of his poems, expressed primarily through his words about the seasons. “Summer Time” brings us the heat of the year, while “Slippery Snowy Sidewalks” makes us smile when we imagine a father with his little daughter, perhaps laughing, dragging him down “damn slippery snowy sidewalks.”

Your Poet IS: Poetry and You is not a book of poems. It is a biography in poetic form, the life of a man, his love, his shame, his fears, his conscience. If you are interested in the words that come together to present a life…this book is a “must read”. Perhaps Thomas T. Kemp will also become your favorite author.

A sample of Kemp’s poetry:

tell me that it is so

so you want to see

And listen to the poet in me?

Can you bear the sight?

of my nakedness?

Will you understand my love then?

You know how many

I wanted to solder my passion

to your meat?

And tattoo my words

And the life of your doll

to the top of your shoulders.

I wonder if you’ll meet

both my shadow and my soul to your lips

When the ages accelerate us.

As I have carried you every night. . .

forever in my green garden

sit on the white swing

Kiss you in my hope.

come tell me

Is this what you want?