8: Eight-word Poems

By Kevin J. O'Conner

Kevin J. O'Conner's tenth book of poetry, 8: Eight-word Poems is a collection of nearly 700 eight-word poems written in August 2017 as a creative challenge. These short, often haiku-like verses range from the whimsical to the profound, covering many points in between. They frequently capture life's small moments and those random thoughts that enter one's mind, with the occasional reference to pop culture thrown in for good measure. Given the range of subjects covered—among them isolation, memory, life's small moments (remember?), personal history, and current events—8: Eight-word Poems can be viewed as a microcosm in short form of the themes that recur throughout O'Conner's work.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kevin J. O'Conner
• Release date: Oct 27, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370923205

Kevin J. O'Conner

Kevin J. O’Conner (56) is not your typical poet. After 30 years of writing only sporadically, Kevin J. O’Conner returned to poetry in 2013—first as a creative exercise, then for the therapeutic benefits. Since 2015, he writes every day, exploring the craft of poetry through monthly writing challenges—‘my ongoing effort to write something that doesn’t sound like something I would write’, he says. Kevin’s poems explore isolation, memory, life’s small moments, and the experience of starting over at ‘a certain age’—always with an emphasis on straightforward expression. As of Spring 2019, Kevin has published eleven collections of poems, the latest of which is WISHES SOMETIMES HAVE CONSEQUENCES, plus four volumes of ‘love notes’ to the days of the week. His poems have also appeared in Raven Chronicles, Spindrift, The CDC Poetry Project, Lament for the Dead, and the anthology VOICES THAT MATTER, and as part of the Clay? VI (2016) exhibit at Kirkland Arts Center. When not writing poetry, Kevin can be found copy-editing documents from far-flung places, attending open-mic readings, designing books, and contemplating what to cook now that he is tired of soup. He lives in Bellingham with his mom's neurotic cat, Cleo III. (updated 28 October 2019)

Book preview

This collection is the product of the last-minute writing challenge I came up with for August 2017. I say ‘last-minute’ because July 31 had come and gone, but I had not yet chosen something for August. On a whim, I decided that, because it is the eighth month of the year, my August challenge would be to write eight-word poems.

When the smoke cleared (or didn’t—as I write this introduction, a number of wildfires in the region have rendered the sky an eerie, dingy yellow-grey, and the sun an orangish-red, and ash particles can be seen floating through the air), I had written 691 of these poems—though, as I somehow skipped #56, they are numbered 1 through 692.

Because I wrote so many of these short poems, they cover most (if not all) of the themes that recur in my work. For that reason, I have chosen to include all 691 poems in this collection—the good, the bad, the clumsy, the clever, the goofy, the profound, the angry, the wistful, and many other points in between. In that sense, this collection can be thought of as a condensed introduction to my poetry.

8: EIGHT-WORD POEMS

1. Progress

My climb to the bottom

has been relentless

2

As August arrives

autumn inches ever closer

undetected

3. Correlation

I know it’s summer

when I miss strangers

4. Intimidation

What you need

looms above me

open wide

5

The comparison with love

diminishes everything

it touches

6. Cognitive dissonance

I know it’s possible

but don’t believe it

7. Timing

I wish you’d known me

before all that

8. Smiling faces

Smiles bled

every dream we had

for ourselves

9. Detail

You may have noticed

long before I did

10. Constriction

Water breathes

Trees breathe

I drown and choke

11

Summer

The first time

The last time

Goodbye

12. Insistence

I’m not falling this time

Help me up

13. Lesson

Existence is not life

I know better now

14. Absence

I’m dreaming

of sleeping it off

without you

15

The shoreline cut sideways

is an imperfect metaphor

16

The two-story rose

has farther to bend

17

If you were my Venus

I’d die loveless

18

Can you imagine

what it would be like?

19

The bandage slipped off

during the night

bloodless

20

Audrey Horne

knew too much

for her age

21

Two-factor authentication:

ensuring security

through minor inconvenience

22. The last place we lived

We used to have bunnies

in our yard

23. Mu Mu

Justified and ancient

was