Show Me Poetry

Missouri has been known as "The Show Me State" for a very long time. It's not clear how it got this nickname. Unflattering stories have circulated for years about its origin.

This is also true regarding the Ozarks--which includes most of Missouri, northern Arkansas, eastern Oklahoma and a southeastern corner of Kansas. It seems the territorial boundaries of the Ozarks are up for discussion. A recent map includes a sliver of southwestern Illinois.

The hillbilly stereotype obviously misleads some folks. Lost to the public eye, among area souvenir stores knickknacks, sadly the profound examples of Ozark culture go largely unnoticed.

Serving as a major Missouri regional hub of culture and commerce Springfield is called Queen City of the Ozarks.

Ethelyn Peebles Kennon (1902-1981) and Raymond Kennon (1903-1983) were both Missourians. They met, married, and married, and lived most of their long lives in Springfield. They were my parents. They were 20th-century fine arts pioneers and Ozarks educators.

In Marriage of Earth & Sky I tell their life-story. This book is a compendium to their tale, shares a sample of their artwork, and their poetry with the wider world.

One night in 1966, Raymond covered the kitchen table with yesterday's newspaper pages, got out a fresh sheet of art-paper, his paints and brushes. He chose as his subject an object sitting nearby and created a large watercolor.

Years before Ethelyn had planted rose cuttings from wilted schoolhouse classroom bouquets. She had recently arranged fresh blossoms from these bushes in a blue clay vase she had herself thrown on a potter's wheel.

This book's cover is a photo of Raymond's (18x24) watercolor entitled Roses in Blue Vase.

I lovingly offer this rich kaleidoscopic collection inviting curious contemporary minds and hearts to ponder the interconnected wonder of human experience in the most unexpected places.

In their artistic creations this couple, as all human beings from the beginning of time, remember...sense...wonder...dream...interpret their lives.

Dad was a middle school dropout. Mom was a college graduate. Both were lifelong learners and teachers.

Mother started writing poetry as a teenager. Dad took it up much later in life, as he said, attempting to better understand what he was trying to paint.

Ethelyn was an elementary public school teacher. Raymond would become known in the Ozarks as "a poet in paint."

Their lives in America's twentieth-century Ozark country were both very different and very much the same as ours.

Dip your tongue and taste the unique ingredients and mix of their lives and times. Open your eyes and see a new perspective. They invite us all to sense and wonder, experience and dream, remember and live our own creative lives.

During research for Marriage of Earth & Sky I discovered and gathered this treasure trove of their poetry. A mere handful were ever published heretofore.

Here their complete poems, illustrated by selected pieces of their artwork, are shared to serve as inspiration from their creative minds and hands.

There will be surprises, tears and delights.

So lick your tongue. Open your eyes.

Get a taste. See.

Dip into some Show Me Poetry.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Raymond Kenneth Kennon
Published: 08/11/2026
ISBN: 9798987097946
Pages: 146
Weight: 0.78lbs
Size: 11.00h x 8.50w x 0.31d