Love from a Broken Fire Escape

As usual with Kydd's work there is a strong spiritual element, with the soul seeking its ultimate fulfillment. He presents the union between lovers, the mingling of two souls into one, as this fulfillment. But when love is lost suffering is intense, and Kydd also shows this unsparingly.

Kydd wouldn't be himself without a healthy streak of cynicism and reality. In the poem ASK NOT he says simply:


Never ask

"Do you love me"

if you do

they don't

And although his final poem, The Breath of Love, is basically positive and romantic, a few pages previous, when describing his first kiss in COW POKE, he can't resist saying:


No sweeter memory in mind and heart could I fathom to this day.

Yet in spite of the heightened passion of the moment

a thought lingered in my mind ever afterward.

.as sweet as her lips felt that wonderful day of my youth

her breath smelled and tasted like sour milk.