Love & Similar States Of Insanity
Genre: Poetry, philosophy, meditations.
Dedication: Lauragene Parker
Amare et sapere vix deo conceditur – “Even a god finds it hard to love and be wise at the same time.”
Over three decades ago while still a young man, Kennedy garnered high praise when his anthology House Of December was published in 1972. Now he is about to unveil his latest effort: Love which should prove well-worth the wait, if at the age of twenty-one he was already said to have “...undoubtedly” belonged to the “poet clan” and was already regarded by many as “as artist of the first rank”. What new gems he will have to offer is anyone’s guess, but a few have already had a glimpse of his new offering, and their exaltations suggest there is much to be anticipated.
Those few who know him well will readily agree that Kennedy is not one to shun controversy; that, while generally regarded as reticent, reclusive and shy, he always speaks his mind when it comes to his “art”. And the same can be expected here where he addresses such recurrent themes of life, love, death, meaning and purpose in life, God and religion and “being alive”. Known to have once said: “I do not write for fools and imbeciles,” he has never been whose ambition has been to appeal to the masses, much in the same vein of a number of other notable novelists, poets and philosophers whose books now line the shelves of our main libraries.
Excerpts
I Have Seen
I have seen the sublime indifference of nature
To suffering and death...
And I have seen first hand
The incredible cruelty that man visits on man...
I have seen with perfect precision how I came
To be at this point in time...
And I have seen how others may say they have
walked in my footsteps but know that only I can know the aggregate...
I have seen how nothing can mean something
And may even actually mean everything...
I have seen how random fate can seem to be to the most brilliant of minds
But know that there is hope in every heart
That can both grasp and venture to chance the chance...
And I have seen in my eye’s mind how it all began
On something infinitely smaller than the point of a pin
That became in life of a nanosecond the Infinity of the poets’ din...
And now I have seen what it looks like on my face
To gaze into your astonishingly beautiful eyes
And know with the utmost certainty
That there is nothing more wondrous left to see...
And now I know with impassioned relief there is life after life.
M
SHOULD IT BE SO (A PSALM)
Should it be so that life is God to you
and you are God to it.
Should it be so that you stand in Understanding
and not succumb to the degradation of hedonism.
Should it be so that the tears you raise are in Bliss,
and not in the sorrow of a requiem
that is the hallmark of those who will never know what it is.
Should it be so that see your Soul
in the eyes of your children
and in all the Beauty that surrounds you
and so naturally flows from within.
Should it be so that you are never lonely
and come to find that in solitude there in Purity;
that sometimes being alone
is not only plenty but necessary
to learn to know and Love yourself
at least as much as the company you keep.
Should it be so that the Truth inspires you
to do many great things, but mostly to have the Courage
to pursue it to its pious end.
Should it be so that you come to know
that time is linear but Life has depth;
that lines can lie, but can neither contain nor
sufficiently describe
the inexplicably simplicity of true Contentment.
Should it be so that you realize that Mind in all ways
takes precedent over matter,
and that's all that really matters ultimately.
Should it be so that you quickly grasp
that a life without Principals is empty in deed;
that the Music you make mirrors the Spirit
that sets up apart and makes you unique.
And should it be so that you will one day know
that I’ve always loved you as much as my being...
Should it be so, and so shall it be.
T
From: Love & Similar States Of Insanity- (Copyright © 2007, 2008 by Richard D. Kennedy, all rights reserved.) is scheduled for release in February of 2008.
For Teresa Lynn Kennedy in absentia.