Anthology

By Kerry Chater

A poetic journey through life, love, and romantic relationships.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chater Books
• Release date: Oct 23, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301713790

Kerry Chater

Kerry began his professional musical career in 1967 when he and his friend, Gary Puckett, formed the pop-rock band Gary Puckett and The Union Gap, and for the next four years Kerry was the group's bass player and arranger for the live performances. He also wrote for the group, and many of his songs can be heard on their albums. In 1987, Kerry moved to Nashville where he resides with his wife and writing partner, Lynn Gillespie Chater. Together, they have written songs for Mindy McCready, Restless Heart, Highway 101, Anne Murray, Paul Brandt, and others, and two musicals which have been performed in Nashville, TN. Their novel, Fortune's Web, is the first in a thriller series featuring Jesse Fortune.

Book preview

The Camel’s Nest

The camel’s nest

what is it?

Not what you think

I promise you

It’s a lonely place

it’s a hidden place

dark

deep and sinking

I could yell there

scream and curse

cry and swear there

and no one would hear me

no one on earth would hear me

and still it sinks

black

almost forbidden

If I want light I must make it

bring it with me

be like the sun bringing light to the moon

this den has no light of its own

Again it sinks

lower

But even the deepest of seas has a bottom

the mightiest ocean gives way

to the land underneath

When I finally find the floor

touch the place where

all the twigs and straw are woven the tightest

where the mesh is so close

not even the smallest finger would pass though the net

and the threads so void of color

no shadow could be cast upon them

there I must work.

The work is hard

Searching

trying to look into the inside

like trying to see the yolk

when there’s no break in the shell

And the yolk is a ship

And if that ship

had a lighthouse for its mast

it would still be hard to find

I keep searching

I am the master of that ship

and I will take it

draw it up

through my subconscious caisson

wipe away the salty water

its tears upon my sleeve

and sail free

But never free enough to forget

the camel’s nest.

day one . . .

I guess I want the phone to ring,

it doesn’t.

The alarm went off at 7:00 am

I went off at 9:00 am

DAMN.

The day seems old

and its only 11:30

dAMn.

Hard Morning

What will I put

in the empty box

I borrowed from my grandmother’s yard

How ’bout the morning

after a shit-faced drunk

so it won’t be so hard.

I Waited the Day Down

I waited the day down

chin in hand

Early

I threw my arm across the shoulders of the sun

(its delicate finger-rays of light

pointing piercing stabs to make me hesitate)

I waited the day down

elbows on knees

Confined

Unlike the hunters of the moon

(human hurricanes of the afternoon

circling swarms like mobiles

hung from a windy sky)