Kendra Preston Leonard
Kendra Preston Leonard is a writer and editor whose work includes poetry, song lyrics, opera libretti, and academic studies. Inspired by history, place, and myth, her poetry has appeared in numerous venues including lunch, vox poetica, and The Shakespeare Multiverse. Her chapbook Making Mythology is published by Louisiana Literature Press. You can read her work at kendraprestonleonard.com.
Kendra's poem “Pumpjack Andante”
In this open Texas field
dipping birds are
pecking down and rising up,
simulacra of dinosaurs
(before we knew they had feathers)
drinking their own blood.
Their tempo never changes;
minutely out of sync with one another,
a landscape made performance art
of minimalism and metronomes,
performers who don’t know
they aren’t soloists,
automatons striking the single key
of industrial player pianos.
Redrust heads in steel bridles,
nodding donkeys plodding,
their brays atonal counterpoint
to the creaks and grinds
of pistons out of tune.
Smooth and circular hip joints swing:
jaded and cold belly-dancers
stripped of their zills and coins.
The field is dry;
the earth drier,
but they dip, and dip,
counting beats in an endless
monotonous recital.
In this open Texas field
dipping birds are
pecking down and rising up,
simulacra of dinosaurs
(before we knew they had feathers)
drinking their own blood.
Their tempo never changes;
minutely out of sync with one another,
a landscape made performance art
of minimalism and metronomes,
performers who don’t know
they aren’t soloists,
automatons striking the single key
of industrial player pianos.
Redrust heads in steel bridles,
nodding donkeys plodding,
their brays atonal counterpoint
to the creaks and grinds
of pistons out of tune.
Smooth and circular hip joints swing:
jaded and cold belly-dancers
stripped of their zills and coins.
The field is dry;
the earth drier,
but they dip, and dip,
counting beats in an endless
monotonous recital.
Recommended Books for Aspiring Writers
- Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones
- Anna Akhmatova, Collected Poems
- Max Brooks, World War Z
- P. Djeli Clark, The Black God’s Drums
- Emma Donoghue, The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits
- Nicola Griffith, So Lucky
Teaching Philosophy
I believe in creating a welcoming, encouraging, safe place for writers to try out new ideas and techniques, to play and to meditate, to explore and discover what works for them and their desire to express themselves through words. Writing is self-empowerment; writing is self-care; writing is endless possibilities.
I believe in creating a welcoming, encouraging, safe place for writers to try out new ideas and techniques, to play and to meditate, to explore and discover what works for them and their desire to express themselves through words. Writing is self-empowerment; writing is self-care; writing is endless possibilities.