Foxed

Someone made a wish,

pressed a flower,

left a tear on the page,

below trees

slashed with names,

hearts cut in bark.  Splashed

river water.  Catfish.  

Cat hair.  Dog-eared.

Pocked yellow pencil.  Scribbles.

Foxed.  Cough in a concert, a kiss.

A single glove.

Cigarette ash dropped

Hansel & Gretel style

up frayed steps

to a lover's room.

Wood sighs.  Sheets twist.  

Sock with a hole.  Rain.

Mud.  Drainpipes.

Brave earthy things.  You.  

Damp.  Preferably mellow,

a little bit worn.

tk/July 2014


Lovely mellow read by R.A.D. Stainforth ...

Join Magpie Tales creative writing group. 

paper-thin, paper-frail

from my Abandoned Ohio photos, Dublin
click to embiggen

Here's what's not beautiful about it: from here, you can't see the rust or the cracked paint or whatever, but you can tell what the place really is. 


You can see how fake it all is. It's not even hard enough to be made out of plastic. It's a paper town. I mean, look at it, Q: look at all those culs-de-sacs, those streets that turn in on themselves, all the houses that were built to fall apart. All those paper people living in their paper houses, burning the future to stay warm. All the paper kids drinking beer some bum bought for them at the paper convenience store. Everyone demented with the mania of owning things. All the things paper-thin and paper-frail. And all the people, too. I've lived here for eighteen years and I have never once in my life come across anyone who cares about anything that matters.

― John Green, Paper Towns

mellow and a little bit worn

I don't like my things to be perfect; 

I prefer them to be mellow

and a little bit worn.

This happens to be true with gifts I give, as well.  I like objects with a little patina, a little history. Those who receive Christmas gifts from me, know they will most likely get something with a bit of must or rust.  Not only do I consider older objects works of art, embodied with wonderful history, giving them as gifts is a beautiful form of recycling. 

I picked up this great vintage potato ricer at Goodwill today.  I love the orangey-ness, the crustiness, the endless potatoes that have been riced, and the lovely industrial design.  It's for my daughter, unless... it decides to make itself at home on the kitchen shelf at Willow Manor.  

american seating

My three children are adults now. Lately I've found myself strangely drawn to children's things.  Maybe I'm in the early stages of latent grandparenthood?

Last Friday, on my weekly Gee-Dub stop, I found a tiny pair of 21" school chairs from the 1940s for $7.00 each.  I love their industrial style, as well as the mellow patina. 

The seats stand only 11" from the ground, so they most likely were used in a kindergarten classroom. They are marked "Envoy", and were made by American Seating, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

American Seating, founded in 1886, is responsible for just about every kind of public seating imaginable, including schools, courtrooms, schools, churches, stadiums, even buses and trains. They also manufactured vital materials for our soldiers in WWII.

Click on this link to the American Seating Museum for a lovely trip down the memory lane of chairs.

scents of stories

For men and women are not only themselves; they are also the region in which they are born, the city apartment or farm in which they learnt to walk, the games they played as children, the old wives tales they overheard, the food they ate, the schools they attended, the sports they followed, the poets they read, and the God they believed in. It is all these things that have made them what they are, and these are the things that you can't come to know by hearsay...   ―W. Somerset Maugham 

Just as people are a mulligatawny mix, so are places.  They are bowls left with remnants of unique recipes, scraps and scents of stories, wanting to be savored, waiting to be told.  ―me 

image:  from my Abandoned America series, "T-Shirt Window", Delaware, Ohio

death of a bird and a review

There is a legend about a bird which sings only once in its life, more beautifully than any other creature on the face of the earth. From the moment it leaves its nest, it searches for a thorn tree, and does not rest until it has found one. Then, it impales its breast on the longest, sharpest thorn. But as it is dying, it rises above its own agony to out sing the Lark and the Nightingale. The Thorn Bird pays its life for that one song, and the whole world stills to listen, and God in his heaven smiles, as its best is brought only at the cost of great pain; driven to the thorn with no knowledge of the dying to come. But when we press the thorn to our breast, we know, we understand... and still, we do it.  

Colleen McCullough, The Thorn Birds

Last week, on my birthday, I heard the tell-tale thud, as this little fella crashed into the glass of the french doors, and fell to the rain-drenched cedar deck.  From inside, I watched, helpless, as he gasped his last few breaths.  At least, I thought, this beautiful creature deserves to be remembered with a photo, before he becomes part of earth's patina.

Speaking of patina, please check out this excellent review of my new poetry chapbook PATINA, published this summer by Finishing Line Press, by Poet, Critic, Blogger Jenne’ R. Andrews, whose work has appeared in a number of journals including, most recently The Adirondack Review; her collections include the small press book Reunion, Lynx House Press, The Dark Animal of Liberty, Leaping Mountain Press, and In Pursuit of the Family, Minnesota Writers’ Publishing House, edited by Robert Bly. She posts work in draft at La Parola Vivace in addition to submitting individual work and book-length collections to journals and presses. She has recently been writing “Rilke variations”—an exercise that has become a vital part of her daily writing practice.


Click here to purchase PATINA from Amazon. 

Wowee! My first book review...

Check out this excellent review of my poetry chapbook PATINA by Randall Radic at Blogcritics Books.  (click on this link for full article)

...in a hazy, lazy sort of way, Tess Kincaid's poems provide a sense of remembrance, a tantalizing wisp of recollection, an easy intimacy.  Like a cold beer on a summer afternoon, her poems go down easy.

Poetry allows us - we human beings - to feel our emotions. Kincaid's poetry goes one step further.  Her words allow us the luxury of emotional commitments to people and to objects.  But emotional commitment implies familiarity.  And familiarity connotes patina.

Radic is the author of A Priest in Hell: Gangs, Murders and Snitching in a California Jail, and Gone to Hell: True Crimes of America's Clergy.  He is currently working on his next non-fiction book, Killing God's Enemies.

PATINA is now available to purchase from Amazon.  

i'm over at the waffle house

April is National Poetry Month and to celebrate, my beautiful friend Terresa Wellborn is doing a series of posts to spotlight poets on her blog The Chocolate Chip Waffle.  I was very honored to be asked to participate today.  So, please pop over and say hello.

Terresa happens to be a very talented poet in her own right.  Here's one of my personal favorites:


Thirteen Ways to Kill Your Heart


Cut it out of your chest
and clawing earth,
bury it.

Climb an impossible cliff and
drop it. Watch it fall,
the majesty.

Boil it until
it screams. Listen in
migratory bliss.

Visit a farm,
feed it to swine.

Stuff it's mouth with newspaper,
suffocate it blue.

Skewer and roast it over an open flame.

With a noose not too loose,
hang it until it's neck snaps.
Flap.

Overdose it with sleeping pills,
in every orifice.

Bludgeon it with a hammer,
hatchet, or anything with a handle.

Abandon it to vultures,
the Mojave Desert will do.

With a knife.

Run it over with your car,
repeatedly.

Eat it.



Terresa Wellborn

Speaking of poetry, don't forget my debut chapbook is now available for pre-order.  I was chosen as a semi-finalist in the Finishing Line Press 2010 Open Chapbook Competition.  Patina, is a 26 page collection of some of my very first poetry, stemming from my love of ancestry and all things vintage.

Finishing Line is a small press and depends on authors to help promote their books. I have an advance sales period of approximately four more weeks, before the pressrun is determined.  So, if you are interested in purchasing a copy, it would help me out tremendously if you would pre-order a copy today.  Click on the link below:

FINISHING LINE PRESS PRE-ORDER

The poetics of Tess Kincaid's Patina balance between discipline and whimsy. Her lyrics and character sketches achieve something many poets do not even try to do:  bring us characters trying to love the world, and a world fertile with sacraments of meaning.        --Annie Finch

Tess Kincaid’s Patina is aptly named, with its acute sense of how the past taints the present and its impressive demonstration of how the poetry of this moment bears the shadow of centuries of tradition.
 --John Biguenet

A huge thank-you to all who have already placed an order.  Your generous support is invaluable, my friends. You're the best.

It's ready!

I was surprised last night with a message from my publisher, telling me my new chapbook, Patina, is on their website and ready for purchase.  It's over a month earlier than expected, so needless to say, I was thrilled.

Last June, I submitted my first poetry manuscript to the Finishing Line Press Open Chapbook Competition.  When hearing nothing by November, I was convinced it was a wash.  Just before Christmas, I was elated to learn I was chosen as a semi-finalist and they accepted my chapbook for publication.

Patina, is a 26 page collection of some of my very first poetry, stemming from my love of ancestry and all things vintage.

Tess Kincaid’s Patina reveals a poet already keenly focused on her materials. Poem by poem they speak to her and she engages them in a poetic dance that by turn waltzes, tangos, and quick-steps its way through a collection exploring family and personal history. Kincaid has a wit to match her craft. The poems’ surfaces invite entry. Their depths do not disappoint.   --Kathryn Stripling Byer

Just as natural patina can passivate objects from further decay, the poems in Tess Kincaid's debut collection form a lasting sheen for the keepsakes of memories that the poet strives to hold.  These vignettes display a polished resonance that haunts yet astonishes the reader with its stunning word choices and sonic musicality.  Like a master craftsman, Kincaid creates her own distinct pattern & style through vivid imagery, precise language, and unique figurative expression.  Her poems remain indelible as the personal past she has restored.   --Greg Sellers

The poetics of Tess Kincaid's Patina balance between discipline and whimsy. Her lyrics and character sketches achieve something many poets do not even try to do:  bring us characters trying to love the world, and a world fertile with sacraments of meaning.          --Annie Finch

Tess Kincaid’s Patina is aptly named, with its acute sense of how the past taints the present and its impressive demonstration of how the poetry of this moment bears the shadow of centuries of tradition.
   --John Biguenet

Okay, now here's the scoop. Finishing Line is a small press and depend on authors to help promote their books. I have an advance sales period of approximately six weeks, before the pressrun is determined.  So, if you are interested in purchasing a copy, please do so as soon as possible by clicking on this link:

FINISHING LINE PRESS PRE-ORDER

A huge thank you to my faithful readers, who have been a tremendous encouragement along the way. You are the best. I could not have done it without you, sweet people.