April is National Poetry Month. Celebrate by picking up a copy of "The Candied Road Ahead: Poems & Stories" available in print and on Kindle by clicking here. This is a taste:

“Magic,” Olivia Newton John

13 years old with hormones just learning

how to rage through the misguided efforts

of friends, antiquated encyclopedias and the church.

This was the year of my obsession with Brooke Shields.

She wooed me into a frenzy that carried me from store

to store in search of magazine photos that I could add 

to the shrine covering my bedroom walls.

I would stare at her many personas -- the pouty child,
the starlet on the town, the seductive tween --

before drifting off to sleep in the hopes that this Pretty

Baby would enter my dreams and turn everything around.

I believed that with her damage free hair and commitment to purity,
she would make the ideal wife. She was someone that my mother 

would approve of and a reason for dad to throw me a way to go

glance. Plus she personally knew Bob Hope and The Muppets. 

I begged my parents to take me to see The Blue Lagoon 

when it was released but I was continually met with “that’s not 

for you.” My mother’s sister eventually convinced them, and off

we went to the movies -- my mother, my cool aunt, and myself. 

My focus fixed on the strands of long hair that discreetly 

covered Brooke’s nakedness hoping they would be swept away. 

Years later I discovered that the hair was glued to pasties and that no
matter how hard the tropical winds blew, breasts would not be revealed. 

Their flirtation grew stronger and Brooke’s nakedness remained discreet.

But the boy exposed more. At the same time, my discomfort 

built, yet so did my intrigue. I knew that deep deep down 

I was hoping to see what his loin cloth covered. 

I glanced at mom through the corner of my eye and I could sense 

her distress with the naturalism of nudity. I found myself sinking deeper 

into the plush of the theater seat, hoping she wouldn’t discover my secret.  

And frantically praying and bargaining for God to make things different. 

copyright Robert P. Langdon. From "The Candied Road Ahead: Poems & Stories"

 

"The Candied Road Ahead allows the reader to delve into the author's world. A world where growing up Catolic, gay, submerged in pop culture and the 80's is everything. Life, death, discovery, sexuality all play an integral role in the author's journey. A definite bedside table book that continues to provide one piece after another of wit, humor and raw sadness. You will feel like the copilot on this intimate road trip."

"Robert Langdon's writing feels so honest. Laying everything out on the table. It is the truth that makes this collection so irresistible. It is so easy to find yourself drawn into the writer's world and finding bits of your own there too."

"Robert Langdon's small volume of poetry and prose packs in a lot of life. Langdon delivers it, sometimes fearlessly and sometimes poignantly, with stunning and visually engaging momentum. It's a collection you'll keep at hand and read again and again."

 walt cessna

 scooter laforge

 benjamin fredrickson

 gio black peter

 

 robert greco, sculpture in red : for 

jon bonjovi

 walt cessna photography