K. R. Copeland

The Poet's Spiral Notebook and the Noose


The poet, with notebook in hand,
failing to find inspiration in the humble surroundings
of his first floor flat,
turns toward the window for answers.
The scene he sees, the same.
The stately Sycamore
that has lived a hundred years or more
takes precedence.
The poet zeros in on one of the lower most branches,
which hosts a rope
that once served as a pulley for a piñata.
He pictures himself hanging lifelessly
from this remnant of birthday party past,
imagines that he'd jumped,
sees his flaccid body, slumped,
his bulging eyes
and gaping mouth,
his purple tinted pallor.
Disturbed, he shakes the image from his head.
His eyes fall back upon blank paper,
and once again, the poet struggles
for something to write…




K.R. Copeland is a self-taught poet, residing in Chicago Illinois, who suffers from bi-polar/ borderline personality disorder. Her work, which ranges from formal to experimental, heady to absurd, has been featured or is forthcoming in publications such as, Beginnings, Seeker, Dakota House Journal, Alternate Realities, Collective Insanity, Poetry Super Highway, Unlikely Stories, Decompositions, Snow Monkey, Niederngasse, and, The American Muse.






Joe Hackworth Bruce Stater Rick Parsons Jerry Hicks Colin Van der Woude Shaela Phillips Martin Rutley K. R. Copeland Jack Cannon Dave Ruslander