You walk out the door for work on a Monday morning and immediately drop your coffee in the apartment hallway. You take a bad step on the stairs and almost do the splits. It’s raining and your umbrella is in the car which is in the parking lot 500 feet away. People dash out in front of you while you’re driving, a clap of thunder almost literally scares the crap out of you. Your office badge won’t work, computer doesn’t boot up, you’re late clocking and you don’t know it but this is the best your day is going to be.
Imagine every emotion felt in this short time and these are the same emotions you’ll feel reading this poetry collection. When you’re done reading it you’ll want to cry or take a shower to wash the depressive grit of life from your skin. Or you may want to cry in the shower and get them both out of the way. This is life and life is poetry but you will most definitely feel a small sense of hope when you’re done.
These words are grounded in reality and sometimes you have to face the reality of life because running away is only a temporary fix. Buckle up, take a breath and know that all of it, even life itself is only temporary. That tiny glimmer of hope in your gut may only be the size of a glowing ember from an almost-spent cigarette, but that is all you need.
Ken Tomaro’s new collection of poetry is a bitter tour de force of grief and disappointment, with humor guiding the poems throughout the chapbook. Ken writes with an acerbic wit in conversational free verse. Read him for his expression of life's surprise and often tragic-comic experience and read him for his craft.
Ken Tomaro's no-nonsense approach to poetry is ostensibly influenced by decades of adversity and the stressful ups-and-downs of daily life. However, the brilliance lies in the interwoven humor softening and sometimes mocking the sad and often dark corners of our lives. While this may admittedly be unintentional, the recurring harsh tone and subject matter of Ken’s words regularly hint at an underlying layer of optimism. His stark, observational style is undeniable yet he occasionally recalls vignettes from his childhood bringing additional flavors of nostalgia and sentimentality into his poetry. Ken sums up his personal trajectory best: “I certainly don’t have it straight and level now but straighter than it has been”.
In Standing Lonely in the Alley, Ken is a master chef, skilled at combining nostalgia, humor, pointed observations of life, and gut punches into a tasty dish of words you won’t forget.
This is an amazing book!
Meet The Author
Never until recently did he consider writing poetry. Not when he slid from the womb. Not when he felt the first tingle of teen hormones. Not after he got married, divorced, moved to another city, lost a couple jobs, moved back. It just sort of happened. Ken Tomaro, self-proclaimed poet laureate of the Cleveland sewer system, has been writing poetry for a few short years. He’s not famous, rich, recognized or read in schools across America. He has been published in several literary journals, done a couple podcasts, started the YouTube channel, Screaming Down the Poetic Highway, and that’s pretty damn impressive.
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