Kenny Norton

Tag: Poem

  • Publication Announcement

    I am pleased to announce that my poem "Jekyll Island" has been published by Inkhorn Review. 

    While it is not autobiographical, this poem is meaningful to me as it was inspired by a photo my cousin posted on Facebook of her late father, her son as a toddler and herself on the beach at Jekyll Island. 

    I hope you enjoy reading the poem. 

    https://inkhornreview.com/autumn-2026/jekyll-island/

  • Imposter, Fraud and Poet

    Sometimes I feel like a fraud, and I have to get used to that.

    Imposter syndrome might be something ubiquitous, but to me, it feels like I am the only one, especially after the tenth rejection letter in a row while struggling with a difficult revision. But I can’t let it get me down.

    Ultimately, I understand a lot of poems in these first batches were not ready or were not fits for journals. Some were nice poems, but not poems journals publish. They’re the type of poems that live sandwiched between “good” poems in a collection. The thing is, I like those types of poems. I enjoy writing those types of poems. I feel like people like reading those types of poems. But journals do not want to publish them.

    So either I am destined to be a homeless, self-publishing poet, an imposter, or I grow to be a publishing poet. Maybe I am all three.

    I never wanted to be a poet, but it seems to be choosing me. In my teens, I wanted to be a singer-songwriter in coffee shops who might one day write a song for myself or someone else that would make it. When that door slammed, and I became an English teacher, I thought I would write short stories and maybe a novel. But I never had the courage to send out my short stories. I found I started several stories, outlined ideas for a lot more, but I never finished them. I have one that I know exactly where I want it to go, but twelve years later, it is still just 75% complete.

    But turning 50 changed everything. I feared being George Gray. Instead of stories, I started writing lyrics again—not that I ever stopped—but they were coming to me faster, stronger, and feeling more poem-like. So I began trying to write poems and sending them out. At least I am not George Gray anymore.

    But I do feel like a fraud. Am I really a poet? Do I have what it takes? Really, though, my deepest fear is that no one will want to publish what I write. So the imposter voice gets louder every time I get that rejection letter.

    The first few powered me to take a leap. I could see it in my drafts. I was honing in on my craft, getting better. Now, the voice seems to be winning, smashing me under its feet like I am a bug. I don’t know how to recover.

    I guess I do, though, as I keep on writing and revising, wrestling with the revision. Trying to force poems I do like, but I am writing something. If I keep putting words to a blank page, which I have always loved doing, one day it might work. It might not be a song that gets to number one with a bullet, but it could be a quiet little poem in a small literary journal that says: you did it; you don’t have to fear being George Gray anymore.

    The rejection letters make it feel like an unscalable mountain, but I have to keep trying.

    I will also share one of those rejected poems, and rightly so. It is not a journal poem.

    MISSISSIPPI FLIGHT

    She hears a call from the distant West,
    stirring a longing long put to rest.
    Will the willows and fireflies remain
    as the fantasy is unspooled?

    In the wind—
    a fever from the Colorado sky.
    In her breath—
    the freedom of the Mississippi flight.

    Fantasy becomes real, no longer a fairytale—
    to feel the prairie dirt turn to rocky ground,
    longing to hear the silence
    of newly fallen snow.

    (C) 2026 Kenny Norton

  • Writing Thoughts

    I wanted to write songs as long as I can remember, but as a child I did not want to write love songs (I really did not like them). But as I got older, I began writing lyrics and tried to write music. As fate would have it, songwriting was not for me. So I became an English teacher, who became a digital marketer, and now someone who wants to be a poet. Trouble is - the songwriter likes to make appearances way too often and way too often I really love what the songwriter wrote even though it does not belong in a poem. 

I wrote this draft in response to my frustration with writing and editing out the songwriter. It is a very rough draft.

    I love the sweeping statements of a song
    the directness of the chorus
    the poetry hidden inside.
    Then, they invade my poems,
    the little viruses,
    and they become
    my little darlings
    that I just can’t kill,
    making me sound like an alcoholic
    describing the drink;
    I like the way it sounds,
    how it rolls off my tongue.

    I don’t want to release them
    but I should.
    They are little crutches
    to prop me up,
    make me feel better,
    but do nothing for the poem.
    It truly is hard to let go
    of my version of cocaine.

    (C) 2026 Kenny Norton

  • The Ant – a new poem

    Here is a journal poem that I shared on my Facebook page, and I wanted to share it in the blog.

    THE ANT

    Crawling on the ground, avoiding feet,
    avoiding being squished.

    Crawling on the ground, scaling walls,
    searching for an exit.

    Getting turned around, lost
    on a bench.

    Up is down, and sideways goes up,
    and going straight leads to a gap.

    Alone, small, and determined.

    Powerless, in need of mercy.

    Flicked to the ground
    to start it all over again.

    (C) 2026 Kenny Norton

    black ant on brown wooden surface
    Photo by Erik Karits on Pexels.com