Author: Kevin J. O'Conner

I'm primarily a poet and copy editor. I also paint, edit audio, and take photographs. My cat, Trixie, ruled the known universe from atop my refrigerator.

National Poetry Writing Month 2019 Day #20 (pt. 2)

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Here is my Day 20 poem using the napowrimo.net prompt: Write a poem grounded in language as it is spoken. Oh, man—I don’t know about that I thought it was a good idea but the way it turned out? Yeah, I don’t know about that When they first brought it up I said DO IT [...]

National Poetry Writing Month 2019 Day #20 (pt. 1)

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Here is my poem for Day 20 using the POETRYisEVERYTHING prompt: three or four naani. A naani consists of four lines, with a total of 20–25 syllables. Not bound to a particular subject, but depends upon human relations and current statements. Mine are connected, an adaptation and continuation of a poem I wrote last night [...]

National Poetry Writing Month 2019 Day #19 (pt. 2)

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Fuck it. Here is my poem for Day 19 using the POETRYisEVERYTHING prompt: Mix up some well-known quotes, no more than three or four words at a time. The poem should be eight lines or longer and consist mainly of the quotes you are borrowing. The final line comes from Johnny Rotten’s remark at the [...]

National Poetry Writing Month 2019 Day #19

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Here is my Day 19 poem using the napowrimo.net prompt: Write an abecedarian poem. Mine addresses my failure to come up with a poem for the other prompt I had for today, which was to write a poem consisting of mixed-up quotes. Well, it wasn’t really a failure, as I did write the poem—but it [...]

‘The Third Symphony’ to appear in this year’s edition of Spindrift

Kevin J. O'Conner3 Comments

That’s basically the news. I was notified this afternoon. Spindrift is the art and literary journal of Shoreline Community College, where I studied graphic design a little over ten years ago. (I also worked on the 2008 issue.) A new issue is published annually, usually around late May or early June. You can read the [...]

National Poetry Writing Month 2019 Day #18 (pt. 2)

Kevin J. O'Conner3 Comments

Here is my Day 18 poem using the napowrimo.net prompt: Write an elegy in which the abstraction of sadness is communicated not through abstract words, but physical detail. Most of this poem is inspired by what I assume was an inadvertent selfie my father took with his phone a few months before he died. The [...]

National Poetry Writing Month 2019 Day #18 (pt. 1)

Kevin J. O'Conner2 Comments

Here is my poem for Day 18 using the POETRYisEVERYTHING prompt: If you had to have one word tattooed on your forehead, which word would you choose? Include that word in a poem three times; try making it the third word of every third line in a poem 12 lines or longer. I could not [...]