Kenneth Pobo
Wanted Works Winner 2016
"Dust and Chrysanthemums"
Kenneth Pobo has seven full-length books and twenty chapbooks published. His work appears in: The Fiddlehead, Grain, Mudfish, Hawaii Review, Caesura, and elsewhere. Catch him on Saturday nights on widecast doing his Internet radio show called Obscure Oldies. Things he loves: the garden, northern Wisconsin, owls and loons, Tommy James and the Shondells, and his favorite lyric poem “Binsey Poplars” by Gerard Manley Hopkins.
Comments from the judges:
“An interesting story of life, of the stages of it, and how a life can influence another is the core of this work. Sometimes existential, the work has themes of exploration and continuance. A contemplative work that is well written, telling a rounded story that can be large in the small moments.”
“Ken Pobo is a very good writer. Dust and Chrysanthemums reads a bit like a memoir in poetry – and it works. I found the writing very confident, the imagery taut, and the narrative spun by the poems intriguing.”
“These poems...defy any world-weary expectations I had for them. They are quiet, understated, and deeply empathetic.”
“This is easily my favourite collection.”
