2021 STONEWALL CHAPBOOK WINNER
Winner of BrickHouse Books' Stonewall Chapbook Competition, which highlights the voices of the LGBTQIA+ community, Lavender Fire, Lavender Rose is full of pastors and teachers and other faux "authority figures" (the old guy in the steamroom) who lay down the law on sin and virtue. Being gay is obviously "wrong." The young gay protagonist of many of these poems is miserable, beyond simply being "misunderstood." Especially in these environments, coming out requires courage. But it is so satisfying to be who you really are! "The warm sun delightfully / lavender, the moon / wearing a white jump suit." This book is both a warning and an affirmation. —Charles Rammelkamp, author of The Field of Happiness
From the stunning opening poem, "Recent Development in Gay America" it its biting closing verse's "nasty words and actions," Lavender Fire, Lavender Rose is a cathartic journey for poet and reader, leavened with touches of sly humor. Ken Pobo in unsparing, including his indictment of the church for its cruelty towards and crusade against homosexuals. This slim volume is an act of grace. From Ken's courage comes our empathy. —Karla Linn Merrifield, poet, My Body the Guitar (Before Your Quiet Eyes Holograph Series, December 2021)
Light runs through this powerful, exciting, gorgeous collection of poems from Kenneth Pobo: sunlight, candlelight, the light of fire and morning and moon. It is a light that is let in when the poet "kick[s] open that closet," as Pobo writes in "Come Up and Out," when the queer subject who has felt constrained by shame and fear finds—makes—demands—openness. The stunning kaleidoscope of queer voices and personae created by Pobo speak of the violence perpetrated by a str8 world, but they also speak of beauty, of discovering music and poetry and sex; they speak of things sustaining. These poems are angry, reflective, erotic, sometimes full of feeling and intimacy, sometimes impersonal yet revealing as a house made of glass. His images stay with you, his figurative language and turns of phrase surprise you, leading you back into the lavender world he has created again and again. —Janine Utell, author of The Comics of Alison Bechdel
Kenneth Pobo is the author of twenty-one chapbooks and nine full-length collections. Recent books include Bend of Quiet (Blue Light Press), Loplop in a Red City (Circling Rivers), and Uneven Steven (Assure Press). His work has appeared in North Dakota Quarterly, Nimrod, Mudfish, Hawaii Review, and elsewhere.
ISBN 978-1-938144-91-2
$12.00 BrickHouse Books/Stonewall
2021 STONEWALL CHAPBOOK WINNER
Winner of BrickHouse Books' Stonewall Chapbook Competition, which highlights the voices of the LGBTQIA+ community, Lavender Fire, Lavender Rose is full of pastors and teachers and other faux "authority figures" (the old guy in the steamroom) who lay down the law on sin and virtue. Being gay is obviously "wrong." The young gay protagonist of many of these poems is miserable, beyond simply being "misunderstood." Especially in these environments, coming out requires courage. But it is so satisfying to be who you really are! "The warm sun delightfully / lavender, the moon / wearing a white jump suit." This book is both a warning and an affirmation. —Charles Rammelkamp, author of The Field of Happiness
From the stunning opening poem, "Recent Development in Gay America" it its biting closing verse's "nasty words and actions," Lavender Fire, Lavender Rose is a cathartic journey for poet and reader, leavened with touches of sly humor. Ken Pobo in unsparing, including his indictment of the church for its cruelty towards and crusade against homosexuals. This slim volume is an act of grace. From Ken's courage comes our empathy. —Karla Linn Merrifield, poet, My Body the Guitar (Before Your Quiet Eyes Holograph Series, December 2021)
Light runs through this powerful, exciting, gorgeous collection of poems from Kenneth Pobo: sunlight, candlelight, the light of fire and morning and moon. It is a light that is let in when the poet "kick[s] open that closet," as Pobo writes in "Come Up and Out," when the queer subject who has felt constrained by shame and fear finds—makes—demands—openness. The stunning kaleidoscope of queer voices and personae created by Pobo speak of the violence perpetrated by a str8 world, but they also speak of beauty, of discovering music and poetry and sex; they speak of things sustaining. These poems are angry, reflective, erotic, sometimes full of feeling and intimacy, sometimes impersonal yet revealing as a house made of glass. His images stay with you, his figurative language and turns of phrase surprise you, leading you back into the lavender world he has created again and again. —Janine Utell, author of The Comics of Alison Bechdel
Kenneth Pobo is the author of twenty-one chapbooks and nine full-length collections. Recent books include Bend of Quiet (Blue Light Press), Loplop in a Red City (Circling Rivers), and Uneven Steven (Assure Press). His work has appeared in North Dakota Quarterly, Nimrod, Mudfish, Hawaii Review, and elsewhere.
ISBN 978-1-938144-91-2
$12.00 BrickHouse Books/Stonewall
