Layout: Ralph Kolewe

Readable. Clean. Meticulous. Striking. Pretty.*

I don’t know exactly just how I lucked into this.

By this, I mean a very special kinship shared/shaped by the love of good work.

And food, and drink and plenty of laughs between us.

I knew from reading Ralph’s work, his meticulous eye, and ear, he knows what belongs on a page. He does exactly what he has set out, has it in mind, to do.

Sure, it’s frustrating at times. A lot of the time. Good work takes time.

Approaching our publications at KFB, I’m more of a set designer, I have a pretty good idea what I want to to look like, feel like, something pleasing to the eye and touch. A treasure to read, return to.

And Ralph looks after it. The physical layout. With exquisite care.

“I really enjoy doing this stuff, Kirby,” he tells me. I swallow. I know the work that goes into it. Work, I myself cannot do. “Thanks Ralph.”

But before any of this, Ralph Kolewe is simply one of the best poets I have ever read. Remains so with each successive work, be it a chapbook (two I’ve been fortunate enough to publish), or his richly minimalist full lengths, Inspecting Nostalgia and The Absence of Zero come immediately to mind, Kolewe writes interiors that bring you immediately into the room, the moment, the time, to observe not beside him but through his poetry. The results are astonishing and o so rewarding as a reader of good work. Sparse. Unsparingly human.

On the balcony, “I’m through with poetry.” “okay.”

That he is also my friend. I can only pray he gets but an ounce of his goodness in return. So dear to me.

“Let’s do this.”

Do let’s.

* “and a touch of flair.”

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