Poetry’s Music by Shelby Stephenson

Kyra Freeman’s Second Life:Poems of Re-emerging reads as if eye-lids open every morn, as bones begin to creak – rise.The sun remembers.Provinces adorn neighborhoods.Children hold hands.Dogs bounce tennis balls.Furniture awakens to doggy’s wagging tail – “Outside!Outside!”

Magic rules, as a “second life” dances with a partner, baggage and all, back to the first of things when Time somehow started and words began to work the way they do.A meadow, by another name could be metaphor for a kitten to play with a moth that misses a flame in a daydream as one wonders if a house pet wants to be let out – to be, to see, to let something “personal”lead to syllables spoken with necessity.Self-portraits grow from one and two until the past grows thorns, shackles – until

“Kicking my ankles loose, I walked forward in a straight line towards the sun.”

April rebels, “raining when it wants to.”

The poet looks around in “vibrations of rebirth.”

-- Shelby Stephenson was poet laureate of North Carolina, 2015-2018.His recent books:More (Redhawk Publications) and Shelby’s Lady:The Hog Poems (Fernwood Press).

68 pages 7.5x9.25x0.25