About Stone
Stone is a book of closely themed poems which together make up a corner of the fabric of a life. It is a love story made up of ribbons circling always to the rocks, real and imaginary, in a basin field of the author’s childhood home in central Kentucky. Each page is a poem to itself, but with constant references to themes, characters, language, and metaphors throughout the book.
There are ribbons following a myriad of characters and themes. A father figure struggling with a giant rock trundles through various pages. A mother figure is represented by a solitary metal pole, hung with silver fabric. There are sisters who are at times interchangeable as they encounter the world within and around them, both as children and as adults. There are ribbons exploring the land, from the minute details of molecules of sandstone to the awe-inspiring immobility of a rock wall to the deep hidden areas of caves and sinkholes. There is exploration of love between parent and child and from sibling to sibling, and the uncertainty of the distinction between one person and another. A ribbon of poems explores romantic love and what it is to sever a bond. A ribbon explores fighting to find love of self and the paths a life may take, and an exploration of the tools we have as humans to find that for ourselves.
Immediacy and connection tie the characters to place and time, to the natural world, and to each other. A hand-built cabin is affected by the conversations taking place in its presence. Stone walls pop up where they never existed, and rear in rebellion to being pushed. Flowers and grasses and rocks in the field may humor a human but ultimately stay true to themselves and their own long histories. Characters learn of the options and joy involved in molding the world to themselves and in adjusting themselves to the world.
Language play, repetition, and dreams provide both a kaleidescope perspective of the specific world in which the characters exist and an acknowledgement of the deep contradictions found in a life fully lived. Scenes are replayed as new perspectives are found, and new realities are created by the influx of ideas and events from a wider world.
Ultimately, Stone is a study, wide but never exhaustive, of the infinite possibilities to be found both in the human psyche and in such a simple thing as a rock, encountered in an empty field.
There are ribbons following a myriad of characters and themes. A father figure struggling with a giant rock trundles through various pages. A mother figure is represented by a solitary metal pole, hung with silver fabric. There are sisters who are at times interchangeable as they encounter the world within and around them, both as children and as adults. There are ribbons exploring the land, from the minute details of molecules of sandstone to the awe-inspiring immobility of a rock wall to the deep hidden areas of caves and sinkholes. There is exploration of love between parent and child and from sibling to sibling, and the uncertainty of the distinction between one person and another. A ribbon of poems explores romantic love and what it is to sever a bond. A ribbon explores fighting to find love of self and the paths a life may take, and an exploration of the tools we have as humans to find that for ourselves.
Immediacy and connection tie the characters to place and time, to the natural world, and to each other. A hand-built cabin is affected by the conversations taking place in its presence. Stone walls pop up where they never existed, and rear in rebellion to being pushed. Flowers and grasses and rocks in the field may humor a human but ultimately stay true to themselves and their own long histories. Characters learn of the options and joy involved in molding the world to themselves and in adjusting themselves to the world.
Language play, repetition, and dreams provide both a kaleidescope perspective of the specific world in which the characters exist and an acknowledgement of the deep contradictions found in a life fully lived. Scenes are replayed as new perspectives are found, and new realities are created by the influx of ideas and events from a wider world.
Ultimately, Stone is a study, wide but never exhaustive, of the infinite possibilities to be found both in the human psyche and in such a simple thing as a rock, encountered in an empty field.
Central Kentucky:
Pictures of the Basin Field featured in Stone |
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