Keith E. Sparks Jr. has been writing from a young age. He has had his work published in various literary journals and magazines and has been nominated for the Pushcart Poetry Prize. More recently he has published multiple collections of poetry including a Compilation Collection of four separate book releases gathered together titled “Gathering Dust” with his most recent release being “Shadowfall,” a collection of Dark Shakespearian Sonnets. Keith is the creator and former editor of Open Skies Quarterly, digital and print publications dedicated to poetic voices. Keith resides in West Virginia with his wife and three children whom are the epicenter of his existence.

Sticks and Stones

I wish that I could be a poet
who learns to build with sticks and stones
that lay misplaced upon a page.
To gather random thoughts expressed 
by ill fit pieces heaped in piles.
Where patterns cannot find their shapes 
and meaning loses strength again--
as if it ever knew its worth...
To lay misplaced upon the page
we paint with fingers thick with pride
that wonders why they cannot grasp
the hollow wit we smear with shit... 

I wish that I could be a poet
to gather random thoughts expressed
and learn to build with sticks and stones.
I'd paint with fingers thick with pride
where patterns cannot find their shapes
through hollow wit I'd smear with shit... 

To Carry The Weight…

He too, can harbor secrets 

and keep the slivered fragments from your view.
To hide behind the whispers haunting corners of his mind
that carve their gaping holes through pain you never knew... 

Where hollow depths will echo undefined
and dream to life a nightmare without end--
Where every word is meant to blur the lines
and shroud the world in phantoms that condemn
as casting out your shadows from above
he finds his greatest pain is that he loves...