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A Conceptual Circus
TRANSFIGURATION
I would expect nothing less.
Carry your sword, my prophetess.
Obstinate contumacy training.
Find the objective that is more draining.
More strenuous tasks will make you grow.
Pain upon you I bestow.
I’ll take it all and nothing less.
I claim it back;
I repossess.
Tip the scale;
Turn it over.
Mark the unused;
What’s leftover.
The main part no longer exists;
Despite the reduction, it persists.
Continued movement;
A quest for traction.
An opposite and negative reaction.
Hex induced metamorphosis;
Reoccur once again for us.
Physically and internally changing.
The process of rearranging.
The alteration was so fitting.
Now they’re pausing;
They’re intermitting.
In reaffirming the causation;
Keep kempt, and maintain your original explanation.
Wear our serpent, prophetess;
Prior to you was profitless.
The soil was sown with no reaping.
Tear our hearts out for your keeping.
Beyond the boundaries of what is permitted.
Reward me for the sins I’ve committed.
My acts were bold;
Caress my flesh.
I give it all and nothing less.
The facsimile will shudder.
Express what it is I utter.
Amidst psychos and others.
Among psychos and others.
Live with vigor;
Efficiently transfigure.
Disfigure;
Change his figure.
Make it so;
Mark the torso.
Undergo;
Nock the torso.
Let it grow;
Open the torso.
Let him know;
Carve the torso.
I would expect nothing less.
Carry your sword, my prophetess.
Obstinate contumacy training.
Find the objective that is more draining.
More strenuous tasks will make you grow.
Pain upon you I bestow.
I’ll take it all and nothing less.
I claim it back;
I repossess.
Tip the scale;
Turn it over.
Mark the unused;
What’s leftover.
The main part no longer exists;
Despite the reduction, it persists.
Continued movement;
A quest for traction.
An opposite and negative reaction.
Hex induced metamorphosis;
Reoccur once again for us.
Physically and internally changing.
The process of rearranging.
The alteration was so fitting.
Now they’re pausing;
They’re intermitting.
In reaffirming the causation;
Keep kempt, and maintain your original explanation.
Wear our serpent, prophetess;
Prior to you was profitless.
The soil was sown with no reaping.
Tear our hearts out for your keeping.
Beyond the boundaries of what is permitted.
Reward me for the sins I’ve committed.
My acts were bold;
Caress my flesh.
I give it all and nothing less.
The facsimile will shudder.
Express what it is I utter.
Amidst psychos and others.
Among psychos and others.
Live with vigor;
Efficiently transfigure.
Disfigure;
Change his figure.
Make it so;
Mark the torso.
Undergo;
Nock the torso.
Let it grow;
Open the torso.
Let him know;
Carve the torso.
102 pages, Paperback
First published December 31, 2017
7 people are currently reading
687 people want to read
About the author
Kenneth Jarrett Singleton
6 books711 followersKenneth Jarrett Singleton is a thirty-two-year-old poet, playwright, and author. Prior to, "Exotic Neurotic," he had three of his books published. His first book was a science-fiction/horror novel called, "The Cadaver Factory." It was published in (2004) when Singleton was twenty years of age. His second novel, "The Donner Society," was published in (2005) the same year as his first play, "Angelica and Francesca." He currently resides in the state of West Virginia.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 21, 2018
2 thumbs down for the spam marketing and fake goodreads accounts
August 17, 2018
This is the pinnacle of contemporary, American poetry!!!
October 15, 2021
At least I got this quote out of the experience:
“Frisky the Clown has a new act for the kids;
He smothers them using foam.”
— Kenneth Jarrett Singleton / “The Conceptual Circus”
The best couplet out of 130 pages of painful reading. Think Daniel Johnston without the music and wit. This was a potential DNF on every page. Fortitude and forbearance required.
“Frisky the Clown has a new act for the kids;
He smothers them using foam.”
— Kenneth Jarrett Singleton / “The Conceptual Circus”
The best couplet out of 130 pages of painful reading. Think Daniel Johnston without the music and wit. This was a potential DNF on every page. Fortitude and forbearance required.
October 26, 2018
I decided to buy this book because I liked the featured poem in the description.
It didn't disappoint overall. I liked nearly every poem in the book. The elements of the poetry thematically are both realistic and surreal at the same time. I give it 4.5 stars.
It didn't disappoint overall. I liked nearly every poem in the book. The elements of the poetry thematically are both realistic and surreal at the same time. I give it 4.5 stars.
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November 29, 2022https://press.authorreputationpress.c...
The US Review of Books (USRB) commended Kenneth Jarrett Singleton’s “A Conceptual Circus” because the story “creates a circus constantly in motion, inviting readers to keep their perceptions”
Kenneth Jarrett Singleton’s “A Conceptual Circus” is highly commended by Barbara Bamberger Scott of the US Review of Books, recognizing that “yet despite some of these dark delvings, Singleton is also quite prepared to portray certain individuals with satisfying empathy, like “Jan the Janitor”: “She’s accepted her destiny. The shine produced by mopping.” “Freakshow Martyr” describes the harsh existence of the carnival freak show denizen who must listen to those speaking coldly about him who have no idea of his inner sensitivities.”
Kenneth Jarrett Singleton is a thirty-four-year-old poet, playwright, and author. Prior to this book of poetry, Singleton had five books published. His first book was a science-fiction/horror novel called “The Cadaver Factory”. It was published in 2004 when he was twenty years of age. His second novel, “The Donner Society”, was published in (2005), the same year as his first play, “Angelica and Francesca”. Singleton’s first book of poetry, “Exotic Neurotic”, was released in 2016. Following Exotic Neurotic, his second play, “Nicu II and Victoria’s Incestuous Romance” was released the next year. Singleton resides in the state of West Virginia.
Poet Singleton marches forth in this collection with intuitively etheric and realistically pain-centered offerings. The title poem focuses on “the stimulation of a drug.” It can’t be remembered and can be dangerous: “The circus’ operator can be most severe.” Diseases are curiously intertwined in this occasionally disturbing overview, from lactose intolerance to ebola to Kaposi’s sarcoma and the danger of drugs, such as an analysis of the addictive qualities of the prescription med “Xanax.” “Try this pill… it might make you all better,” the poet urges while warning that the medication is a “temporary solution” for which “there is no recovery.”
Here’s an excerpt from the US Review of Books that highlights:
“Singleton, who has written other poetic works along with plays and books, focuses in this latest aggregation on difference, discouragement, and the great distance and distress that can so often afflict one’s reality. He is never at a loss for words, some quite complex and a few invented, encompassing enjoyable rhymes. His powerful paean to “A Codependent Romance” reveals a scenario many may recognize—the frustrations and rewards of building a trusting relationship that ultimately, as he styles it, “could not have occurred in any greater form.” One suspects that Singleton’s works are meant to baffle and equally suggest solutions to many of life’s more distressing puzzles. He creates a circus constantly in motion, inviting readers to keep their perceptions in a heightened state so that nothing essential to life’s panorama will go unnoticed.”
The US Review of Books (USRB) commended Kenneth Jarrett Singleton’s “A Conceptual Circus” because the story “creates a circus constantly in motion, inviting readers to keep their perceptions”
Kenneth Jarrett Singleton’s “A Conceptual Circus” is highly commended by Barbara Bamberger Scott of the US Review of Books, recognizing that “yet despite some of these dark delvings, Singleton is also quite prepared to portray certain individuals with satisfying empathy, like “Jan the Janitor”: “She’s accepted her destiny. The shine produced by mopping.” “Freakshow Martyr” describes the harsh existence of the carnival freak show denizen who must listen to those speaking coldly about him who have no idea of his inner sensitivities.”
Kenneth Jarrett Singleton is a thirty-four-year-old poet, playwright, and author. Prior to this book of poetry, Singleton had five books published. His first book was a science-fiction/horror novel called “The Cadaver Factory”. It was published in 2004 when he was twenty years of age. His second novel, “The Donner Society”, was published in (2005), the same year as his first play, “Angelica and Francesca”. Singleton’s first book of poetry, “Exotic Neurotic”, was released in 2016. Following Exotic Neurotic, his second play, “Nicu II and Victoria’s Incestuous Romance” was released the next year. Singleton resides in the state of West Virginia.
Poet Singleton marches forth in this collection with intuitively etheric and realistically pain-centered offerings. The title poem focuses on “the stimulation of a drug.” It can’t be remembered and can be dangerous: “The circus’ operator can be most severe.” Diseases are curiously intertwined in this occasionally disturbing overview, from lactose intolerance to ebola to Kaposi’s sarcoma and the danger of drugs, such as an analysis of the addictive qualities of the prescription med “Xanax.” “Try this pill… it might make you all better,” the poet urges while warning that the medication is a “temporary solution” for which “there is no recovery.”
Here’s an excerpt from the US Review of Books that highlights:
“Singleton, who has written other poetic works along with plays and books, focuses in this latest aggregation on difference, discouragement, and the great distance and distress that can so often afflict one’s reality. He is never at a loss for words, some quite complex and a few invented, encompassing enjoyable rhymes. His powerful paean to “A Codependent Romance” reveals a scenario many may recognize—the frustrations and rewards of building a trusting relationship that ultimately, as he styles it, “could not have occurred in any greater form.” One suspects that Singleton’s works are meant to baffle and equally suggest solutions to many of life’s more distressing puzzles. He creates a circus constantly in motion, inviting readers to keep their perceptions in a heightened state so that nothing essential to life’s panorama will go unnoticed.”
August 27, 2018
Poetry, Contemporary
December 19, 2022
very good book, amazing.
January 13, 2025
Painful to read.
It realy is a “Circus” when no style, logic or method is behind your already bad and arguably forced rhymes.
If it wasn’t for the more elequoent words, I’d assume it was written by a 12 y.o. who just got introduced to (not the best kind of) poetry and felt they had extraordinary things to express.
It realy is a “Circus” when no style, logic or method is behind your already bad and arguably forced rhymes.
If it wasn’t for the more elequoent words, I’d assume it was written by a 12 y.o. who just got introduced to (not the best kind of) poetry and felt they had extraordinary things to express.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews