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    Separation Anxiety
    Separation Anxiety
    Separation Anxiety
    Ebook105 pages19 minutes

    Separation Anxiety

    By Kevin J. O'Conner

    ()

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    About this ebook

    This collection of poems and photographs explores the emotions that come up when things end.

    Everyone breaks up at one time or another. Whether the relationship is a seemingly happy one that comes to a crashing halt when the other person suddenly wants out, or a miserable existence that neither person quite has the courage to get out of until the day that one or both can take no more, the truth is that most relationships end. Unless you opt out of relationships altogether, this keeps happening until you find that one person with whom you can be happy. Sometimes even that relationship ends.

    We’re not often encouraged to talk about these emotions. Sometimes it’s because they make us uncomfortable; sometimes it’s because they make the people around us uncomfortable. Unfortunately, when we don’t talk about them, they find other ways to come out, to make us acknowledge them—and then we end up having even more work to do...

    Also included are reproductions (scans) of 24 Polaroid photographs that complement the overall theme. For those with compatible e-readers, the color photographs will appear in color (they appear in black-and-white in the print edition).

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherKevin J. O'Conner
    Release dateJun 30, 2014
    ISBN9781310375767
    Separation Anxiety
    Author

    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)

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      Book preview

      Separation Anxiety - Kevin J. O'Conner

      As the blurb on the back cover says, this collection of poems explores the emotions that come up when things end.

      In April 2013, I participated in National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) for the first time. This happened to coincide with my pending divorce. Whether or not I worked from the optional daily prompts, a lot of my emotions about the divorce—and about being on my own again—came out in many of the poems.

      When I went through my old journals earlier this year to collect the poems I’d written over the years in one place, I discovered that many of them explored the same emotional landscape. Then came NaPoWriMo 2014, with familiar themes emerging yet again—and the focus of this collection became clear.

      The inclusion of photographs is deliberate. Not only is photography my longest-running creative pursuit, but also I wanted this to be more than a plain poetry book. If I have chosen wisely, the photographs that appear in this book will provide a visual complement to the text.

      It is my hope that this book will be of help to anyone going through their own separations. Since we’re not often encouraged to talk about how we feel at such times, it is easy to forget that we are not alone, that this happens to everyone at one time or another.

      Thanks to all the people who have been a part of my journey thus far. I couldn’t have made it without you.

      —Kevin J. O’Conner, 21 May 2014

      PRELUDE

      not completely cut and dried

      2 April 2014

      Impossible Instant Lab

      Impossible Color for Impossible Cameras

      10 May 2014

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