Audacity of Form by Robert Frede Kenter (Ice Floe Press) – Reviewed by Vikki C.

The beautiful hybrid collection Audacity of Form by Robert Frede Kenter is an affecting poetic narrative combined with visual art and expanded photography, weaving intersections of friendship, family histories, illness and caregiving with vibrant cameos of NOLA, music, art, and the intimate culture of the heartland.

The mixed poetic forms and arresting visuals emulate the juxtaposition of joy and melancholia voiced through people and places pivotal to the poet’s life. Here, the weight of loss and absence is held close within an animated language, a kaleidoscope of inquiry that continues to shape both the author and reader’s landscape far beyond the physical page. 

This is a book about the fragility of the human experience, a fearless and dialectic embrace of its complex relationships whilst navigating a world in chaos. A homage to a life celebrated amid the disparities of society and self rupture, and in the poet’s words: “...a dance a questioning of God / a marathon of endurance.”

There is music to be heard in difficult times and undoubtedly, Kenter is master of the lyric — scoring beauty from dissonance with a vision that transcends spirit and zeitgeist. 

Audacity of Form is available from Ice Floe Press. For further details visit: https://icefloepress.net/0rder-audacity-of-form/