#HookedOnPoetry: Shane Douglas Keene Shares His Original, Powerful Poetry #poetry @shanedkeene

Today I’m very pleased to introduce some original poetry from my longtime friend Shane Douglas Keene. Shane is a book reviewer, columnist, co-creator and editor of the site Ink Heist as well as a host of the podcast of same name. Not only has he given so much back to the horror and writing communities, but he’s a fiction writer and poet too.

Most recently Shane was part of Josh Malerman’s Carpenter’s Farm serial book, a project in which Shane wrote companion poems inspired by the book to each chapter. They were very good and such a special thing to read along with it!

He writes some heartfelt poetry here that tugs at the heart of loss and love and the storms that are people’s emotions. I can’t wait for you to read them, furthermore, for us all to be able to read even more of Shane’s work.

Thank you for following our features this week for the #HookedOnPoetry project and please join us back next week for three or four more features as we continue on.

Enjoy,

Erin

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Photo by Joshua Newton on Unsplash

 

Forces
by Shane Douglas Keene 

 

you can never resist a tsunami

or a determined woman, both will

forge their paths, hindered as you

will, but if you cross in front of them,

hope the earth will take you, plow you

under like so much compost;

you won’t have changed a thing,

but woman and wave

are, and will have changed, everything;

a man will storm and rage and

demand his right to draw first

blood, an ineffective quaking of

empty hubris;

she will abide, biding her time,

a quiet demon, no victim, seething,

straining against bonds not properly

designed to constrain her;

she the maelstrom, a proper storm,

barely slowed before,

like cheap rubber bands, restraints

snap and she surges forth, earning

brand new scars;

creating them

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Photo by Joshua Newton on Unsplash

 

Effigy
by Shane Douglas Keene 

 

I think of you a lot,

the way you threw me down the well,

the way you dragged me back, threw

me down again and again and still the

damage insufficient to your

needs, you burned

me down to ash, scoured me from

the universe as if I’d never

been

never will and if I rise it

will in effigy be,

petrified in Vesuvian flames,

standing in worship in a

trophy cabinet somewhere,

stuck in rigor and

holding my ruined heart

in frozen fingers,

and what I’m really

trying to get across is,

I think about you night and

day

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Shane Douglas Keene, Biography –

Shane is a poet, columnist, podcaster, and professional curser living in Portland, Oregon, where he was born and periodically raised. He is the co-founder and editor of Ink Heist and one of three hosts on the Ink Heist podcast. He hates long walks on the beach, playing with puppies, and romantic candlelit dinners, but he does love a good glass of scotch, a good book, and good music playing in the background.

When he’s not bumbling his way along pretending like he knows where he is, he plays a pretty decent guitar and sings with the dulcet tones of a sick bullfrog.

You can find his various meanderings, podcasts, and poems at Ink Heist, and you can find and follow him on Twitter @shanedkeene. You can find links to his companion poetry penned to Josh Malerman’s serial novel Carpenter’s Farm at this link.

NOTE: Content is sometimes, okay pretty much always, quite explicit, NSFW but good for teaching your kids new words.

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If you missed yesterday post at Kendall Reviews, it was a lovely poem by Christina Sng. You can read it HERE. Stay tuned for more poetry next week! Thanks for sharing and supporting the #HookedOnPoetry project.