Synkroniciti is excited to welcome back poet Ken Farrell, based in Texas, with [ ], a philosophical poem about human habits of taking up and creating space, particularly when seated in public areas where we don’t know everyone.
“The custom is to sit/ next to another when you enter/ a dining hall or theater/ alone, to fill each empty seat/ as close to another as you can./ It is only a custom.”
And yet our desire is often to break this pattern. Many of us do so. It’s not a crime, but we feel the intentional leaving of space, creation of distance, as a boundary. Others leaving space makes us choose between clustering or isolating. Why do we impose spaces: are we fearful, unfriendly, shy, respectful? Do we feel uncomfortable and seek to control the space around us? It’s a fascinating thing to ponder and Ken creates an ominous sense of mystery, as if we are treading near the edge of an unmarked, invisible void. Who are we when we don’t possess status within the group? Evoking the maze, the restrained and subtle quality of this poem illustrates how existential dread and emotionally charged allegiances govern our sense of order and the choices we make. Some of us will never be comfortable in these spaces.
Read [ ] in Synkroniciti’s “Patterns” issue, Vol. 7, No. 4, available for purchase here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Originally from Colorado, Ken Farrell lives and writes in Texas, his work appearing in various anthologies and in journals such as NonBinary Review/4LPH4NUM3R1C, Horseshoe Literary Magazine, Pilgrimage, Sport Literate, and Watershed Review. Ken holds an MFA from Texas State University and an MA from Salisbury University, and he has earned as an adjunct, cage fighter, pizzaiolo, and warehouseman. Responding to his daughter’s challenge, Ken is writing his first novel, a tale about an orphan navigating a world where ghosts are jurors, the sky is off limits, and shards of souls are commodities.