Ken Holland

A Poem That’s Better by Half

I’m wearing my lead-lined suit to keep
the decaying atoms of my body from slipping out.

I understand the sadness that attends an atom
becoming half the atom it used to be.

I understand the half-life of a life
when a life is more than half gone.

What took no more time than a morning sky
to display its array of spectral color.

Light leaning into the half-note
of a receding summer.

The half-note of a song mostly gone
but for the life of me I’m trying to remember.

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Ken Holland has had work widely published in such journals as Rattle, Atlanta Review, Pedestal Magazine and Tar River Poetry. He was awarded first place in several competitions including  New Ohio Review, Kim Addonizio judge. His book length manuscript, “Summer of the Gods”, was a semi-finalist in the 2022 Able Muse book competition as well as Word Work’s 2022 Washington Prize. He’s been nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize and lives in the mid-Hudson Valley of New York. More by visiting: kenhollandpoet.com