Lyric Heart
Poems and Other Musings
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Her Heaven
When you were five
there was a nice man
down the street
who let you swing in his hammock
and savor the salt air
of the Jersey shore
and gaze upward at the narrow
rectangle
of sky between two buildings
where gulls dashed to and fro
--angels hinting at a wider heaven.
And now I think, my sweet mother,
perhaps
heaven is indeed a place
where a nice man
has hung a hammock
just for you
and you can swing
and nap a while
until the sea’s fragrance
awakens you
to the lazy turns of wave-white
wings
in a sky
no shape
can hold.
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About the Book
“This is poetry everyone can enjoy, but do yourself a favor and read it aloud…”
Norm Jackson, Ph.D.
“Poetry should be more than a clever collection of words and images. The ‘poet’ must be a person who has truly lived and experienced the joys and agonies of the heart. Bob Kamm is that type of poet…”
Barry Bernfeld, Ph.D.
Bob Kamm rejects the idea that poetry is “a language of the gods.” He makes it fully human in this collection of exceptional scope, addressing all the major domains of the average person’s life—family, love, work, war, spirit and laughter.
Yes, these are poems that should be read out loud—on the subway or in the suburbs, in the workplace or at funerals, weddings or births, on ordinary days, days of epiphany, days of sorrow, days of falling in love and out, days when you lose your faith in humanity and regain it—any and all days when your own heart longs to sing and either can’t find the words or needs another to take up harmony.
About the Author
Bob Kamm was born in New York City in 1947, the youngest of three sons. His father, Herb, was a journalist, his mother, Phyllis, a free-lance writer. In this word-rich environment, it is not surprising he melded with language at a very young age.
Throughout his childhood in the New Jersey suburban town of Summit, and his travels as a young man through Europe, the Middle East and across America, he continuously worked at his craft through prose, song and poetry. Entering the business world, he was served well by the capacity to represent himself both on paper and on his feet.
In 2000, he published his first book, The Superman Syndrome: Why the Information Age Threatens Your Future and What You Can Do About It. The basic message? It really is possible to live a life of depth in a world dominated by speed.
In 2002, his second book, Real Fatherhood: the Path of Lyrical Parenting was released. While it chronicles Bob's personal experience as a single father, it could well serve as a primer for parents in all the diverse family settings of our time facing the challenge of balancing family, work and the need for personal nourishment.
In the course of sharing the ideas in Superman and Real Fatherhood, Bob received the attention of the national press including CNN, MSNBC and NBC, Fox, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, CBS and ABC radio along with numerous other media outlets.
While some of the poems in this collection were written in his twenties, thirties and forties, the overwhelming majority of them emerged over the last three years as he was moving through the second half of his fifties.
Since 1977, Bob has lived in San Luis Obispo, County, California.