No Room for Kindness

About the Book

The poems in No Room For Kindness are for the most part short and jewel like in their faceted brevity and yet are extremely fragile.  The 51 "messages" are to be read as one continuous poem in which the protagonist conducts in his mind a soliloquy with the wife of his best friend and, sometimes, with that friend himself.  He describes what he is feeling and thinking in this imagined affair, using images drawn from his day-to-day reading and experience.  This compound poem was written when the Viet Nam war was going on.

About the Author

Mr. Carlson has been writing poetry for 50 years.  His aim has been to create poems in which emotions are honest, descriptions accurate, images evocative, and language accessible.  Some of his poems are long and dense; others short and spare.  They are by turns powerful and delicate, thought provoking and playful, solemn and funny.  Sharing his experiences, observations, and thoughts as a son, student, brother, lover, father and friend will call up your own experiences, observations and thoughts.  Written aloud, they should be read aloud to be fully enjoyed.  The words are to be felt on the tongue.

Born the son of missionaries in Sierra Leone, West Africa, Mr. Carlson currently lives with his wife and dog in Alexandria, Virginia.  He has lived previously in Indiana, California, Oregon, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Colorado and Utah.  He is a retired federal official who has also worked at the state and local level.  He  has degrees from Wabash College and Yale University.