Lynda’s Journal – poem – Kay in the Kitchen –
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.
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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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Photo Courtesy of AllAuthor. Lynda’s newest book of nature-themed poems. Available NOW on Amazon.

