Ken Hada is a fourth generation Oklahoman, descendant of Danish and Hungarian immigrants: Gypsy poets, barn dance aficionados, art lovers, amateur philosophers, wheat farmers, preachers, teachers and common-sense craftsmen.

“These poems, acting as spare parts themselves, go into the making of one smooth-running, powerful engine.”

 - Diane Glancy

Author of Pushing the Bear

The Doorkeeper’s Feet

by Amy Wright

& the steps to Harriet's hut, eighty three.

A new monk, she had noticed recently that everything is

just energy that wants noticing, like when she was seven

years old, sitting alone on a hillside in the hollyhock megaphonic

light, autonomous, though irresponsible for the breath

until she chose it, taking herself by the hand

to the California mountains. I will change this

she told herself on the way home from work,

shouting in her car at the pizza parlor: I am bored!

The initiation was easy by comparison—

to sit for sixteen hours, five days in a row on a cupful of soup,

watching her mind come alive. Even the dull thoughts

ribbons, being hers, for however long possession lasts.