Poetry & Art
Salka Archipelago
Kenneth also collaborated with poet and visual artist, Ana Maria Hernando and master printmaker Bud Shark in 2013 to create Salka Archipelago, a poem-painting in limited edition prints, that celebrates the mysticism of the Andean tradition and Don Americo Yabár's teachings on salka, a Quechua word meaning "undomesticated energy."
To learn more about the project or to purchase one of these prints, you can contact Kenneth directly at robinson@edge.net or visit:
anamariahernando.com
salkastar.com
Salka Archipelago Project Podcast
The Salka Poetry Project Podcast Series offers an engaging collaboration of conversation and poetry in both Spanish and English by artist and poet, Ana María Hernando, and poet, Kenneth Robinson. The two incorporate in-depth interviews with Colorado master printmaker Bud Shark and Innisfree Poetry Bookstore owner Brian Buckley in order to expand on their own exploration of the intersection of poetry and the visual arts. The podcast will give perspectives on a range of topics including the meaning of salka, the relationship between poetry and spirituality, the intimacy of translation, and the Colorado art scene.
This series has been in funded in part by the Boulder Arts Commission, and Agency of the City of Boulder.
Changing the Weather
By Kenneth Robinson
If you wish to change the weather,
forget all notions of force. The wind,
the sunlight, the clouds, and rain
have no desire to be told what to do.
No one does. First, love them, be close to them.
Cherish the wind, praise the rain, adore the clouds,
each loop and curve and all their colors, till
they come to love you back, and seek you out,
and long to share with you the holiness of dusk and dawn,
and when you have spent many glorious unproductive hours
with them, learning their songs and their illustrious histories,
one day, when you have need, they will offer you their powers
and let you bend them, they will pause
if you ask them to wait, they will hurry
if you judge things urgent, they will piece you together,
and set in motion all that’s magic inside you,
sure as your heart is true.
The Year of Lovemaking and Crying is a book of poetry written in a voice that belongs both to the Deep South and to the Cosmos.
“Kenneth Robinson's first book of poems has touched and inspired me in my own life and work. His voice, speaking in these verses, asks the hard questions, finds the disarmingly simple in the complex, and shows that the simplistic answer is often the easy way out. There are few emotional stones left unturned here, but they are turned with insight and the greatest loving care. Highly recommended.”
-Tom Kimmel