Separate Destinations
BY R.W. O'ROURKE I October 11, 2009

Kendall Evans and David C. Kopaska-Merkel. Separate Destinations. Baton Rouge: ByrenLee Press, 2005. 42 pages.
ISBN 1-892958-02-3

With the poetry chapbook Separate Destinations, Kendall Evans and David C. Kopaska-Merkel have plumbed new widths. From start to finish I was rarely in sight of any horizon.

During the first read I was continually murmuring to myself, "This is beyond me." Somewhere in the reread it dawned on me that this was probably part of the point. Truth to tell, as soon as it was released it was beyond the authors' as well. All writers eventually must turn over their creations to the audience. By definition Speculative Poetry is especially open to unique and varied interpretations.

I have no idea whether the title suggests the variety of locales, atmosphere, attitude, or author conflict. And, frankly, I don't care. Their journeys intersect at frequent enough intervals that the destination becomes immaterial. Both authors provide images from these travels made strikingly vivid through their acquisition of shared language.

In these recessionary times it was comforting to know I could join in these excursions with only a chapbook and a cheap recliner.

The illustrations by Angela Mark, while fanciful and well constructed, seemed unnecessary at first. But as I lurched from location to location they began to provide a pleasant interlude to cleanse my palette between verses.

Returning, reluctantly, to reality the highest praise that I can give here would still be, "It's beyond me."

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