Lynda’s Journal

~ Kay in the Kitchen ~

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The Poem:  Kay in the Kitchen

Kay in the Kitchen

My cousin Kay is a kitchen queen

feeling  lost at the counter

searching for car keys

knee-deep in a kayak stream

in  southern Ohio.

Kay sips  K-cup coffee

Travels  to Keystone state, sometimes.

Her kettle boils  like  a Kafka story

or a  wild night  of frequent  flying.

Kay is a record-keeper of kites lost in the wind.

As she gathers thread and squares of fabric

Kay  crafts   them all together.

Keeps  stitching  until her quilts look

like Kandinsky’s gestural paintings,

Gathers her mementos into keep-sakes

knitting each kindness into lyrical lines

like  the smooth flow of a Keats poem.

–

NOTE:

This poem is a collection of fragments I  observed over a number of years, with several friends and family members who had dementia.

I created this fictional poem in response to a writing prompt given to a group of poets.  The Challenge was to write a poem using the letter “K” during National Poetry Month several years ago. 

As I was composing this poem, I was writing the letter, “K” as often as I could work it into the story of the poem.  Because we have a number of friends and family members who suffered with dementia, I wanted to describe the fragmentation of the mind and how it changes the perception in creative people I have known personally. 

In fact, in January 2024, my husband died after  eleven years of treatments for Acute Myeloid Leukemia.  From the beginning of the intense treatments in April 2014, he began showing symptoms of dementia.

I wanted to write this poem to give an intimate  view of the lives of people I know  who are challenged  and changed over a period of years with dementia.  My hope in this poem is to create a feeling of their struggles to piece together their creative lives despite the fragmentation of memory.

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Published: 2024.

Anthology, Mingled Voices ;8  (Page 72) 

International Proverse Poetry Prize  Anthology 2023;

Proverse (Hong Kong) (2024)

__Lynda’s Bio and non-fiction story will appear in :

Food, Flowers, Medicine: And Other Gifts From the Garden, Anthology, 2025

SOON to be RELEASED – Stay Tuned for MORE information soon.

Lynda McKinney Lambert writes and creates visual art from her vintage home in the Village of Wurtemburg, in Western Pennsylvania. She writes poetry and personal nonfiction essays. She currently has six published books available at all retail booksellers. Her artworks have appeared in international exhibitions, including Japan, New Guinea, Austria, and the United States.  Lynda retired from her position as Professor of Fine Art and Humanities at Geneva College in 2008 due to profound sight loss. She invites readers to discover the subtle nuances  and beauty of a physical and spiritual world as she weaves strands from history, nature, and her personal life experiences.

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