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Ocean Publishing FL
A Poetry Break: Poetry for Your Pleasure
A Poetry Break: Poetry for Your Pleasure
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$11.95 USD
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Kay Day's latest collection of poetry is organized into chapters grouped by theme. Themes include relationships, Southern culture, religion, philosophy, and the environment. The poet has published widely in a variety of print magazines such as ByLine, the magazine for writers, and Miller's Pond, a literary magazine. Her work has also been included in university anthologies such as Foliate Oak.
In assembling this collection, the poet has said that she deliberately chose poems that are accessible to a wide variety of readers. For instance, the first chapter consists of sonnets in the traditional form that includes rhyme and meter. Another chapter that relates to the South features narratives the poet describes as "back stories held together by poetry." In the narrative poems, most of the lines carry a similar number of stressed syllables.
The poems in A Poetry Break can be revisited time and again. "This Mother's Rites" is a very popular poem because it explores a mother's last thoughts as her children come to tell her goodbye. The song-like "Dear G." has been praised by poets like Steve Kowit, and the irony in a poet's gratitude for the man who broke her heart appeals to both genders.
Perfect for a solitary read or for reading aloud with others, A Poetry Break is a fine addition to a personal book shelf or a perfect gift. Reasonably priced, and with Author's Notes at the back, Kay Day's book aims at putting poems back into the mainstream reader's life. The book also features a page of "worthy causes," organizations and Net sites that promote and publish quality poetry.
Author's Comments
In choosing poems for this collection, I considered the people I'd met during the many readings and presentations I've done. I thought of the mother whose child, like my own, experienced a serious illness. I thought of the young college student who told me she began to read poetry when her heart was broken, and of the policeman who explained he was buying my second book because he was "just plain curious about poetry." I wanted these poems to affect people much like fiction, so that the reader wanted to keep reading. Just telling a story wasn't enough, however. I wanted sound to fall on the ear in the way music does.
As a poet, I am a fanatic about the makeup of each line--the value of every word, punctuation mark, and the arrangement of the words as well. For me, grammar represents a tool for the poet, as does the number of stressed syllables in a line, and forms I might use, such as the sonnet, a form that allows 140 syllables for taking the reader on a spiritual journey. In speaking through these poems, I dealt with subject matter that interests me, like the ghosts in old Southern homes and a statue of the Virgin Mary that drew my attention and led me to sit quietly in an art museum for hours. One of the poems, "Draw a Circle" stems from my work with an endangered species program, and another weaves the story of a young gang of inner city boys into a song.
To me, poetry is the purest form of writing, and the most exacting.
About the Author
Kay Day's third collection, A Poetry Break, features a full chapter of sonnets and an introduction by Ruth Daigon. Ms. Day has written articles and poetry for magazines like The Writer, Miller's Pond (print edition) , Conspire, Fairfield Review, Pif, and ForeWord. An essay on crafting poetry is included in the The Writer's Handbook, 2005. She has received awards for poetry, nonfiction, and fiction, and her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her poetry has been featured on public radio, and her poems are included in anthologies like The Best of Foliate Oak, published by the University of Arkansas, Monticello. Her work is included in curriculum materials published by Englfield and Arnold. Her poetry has received favorable comments from poets like Steve Kowit and Baton Rouge's daily newspaper Book Editor.
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