Category: Poets & Events

Seesaw – Quirky Poems Poetry Collection

By Ken Tomaro & Nolcha Fox

Born from a shared love of dark humor and playful wordplay, Seesaw is a delightful balancing act of wit, whimsy, and poetic mischief. Ken Tomaro and Nolcha Fox first crossed creative paths in the Thursday Night Poets group, where their mutual knack for quirky, offbeat humor sparked an unexpected collaboration. What began as playful exchanges-plucking words and phrases from each other’s poems to craft something new-quickly evolved into a collection that swings between the light and the dark, the serious and the absurd.

Seesaw is poetry at its most spontaneous and fun, a reminder that even in life’s heavier moments, there’s always room to laugh, twist the narrative, and dance on the edge of meaning. Dive into this collection and let the playful push and pull of their voices keep you balanced-right in the middle of the seesaw.

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Review of “Seesaw” by Ken Tomaro and Nolcha Fox:

“Seesaw” is a captivating and engaging poetry collection designing the collaborative efforts of Ken Tomaro and Nolcha Fox who blend their distinct voices to explore the themes of love, loss, and memory sauteed with a ‘quirky sense of humour’.

“Why am I so hard on myself?

That’s it, today’s the day!

I’m going to write a book called On Being Sympathetic to the Apathetic Empath.”

The same quirky sense of humour flows raw and poignant throughout the pages of the book. Ken Tomaro and Nolcha Fox have done a wonderful job with their shared experiences from the “Thursday Night Poets group”. The poems are arranged in a unique stanza pattern where Nolcha’s right-aligned stanzas complement Ken’s left-aligned stanzas. This visual distinction enhances the reading experience to a lofty level.

“And now I want a sandwich,

 but it won’t make itself.

Maybe I can train the rats

how to cook.”

These lines remind me of Remy, the rat in the movie “Ratatouille”.

Celebrating a variety of themes from mundane life struggles to whimsical reflections on human existence this book is punctuated with a playful absurdity. Throughout the collection, the tone oscillates between melancholic and whimsical, giving way to a rich emotional tapestry.

Poems like “All I Can Think of Is Food” and “God Drops the Ball Again” reflect the authors’ penchant for irony and wit. “He is a house” and “I come to a door” permeate a lingering sadness that overshadows my senses for a long time. Poems like “Ghosts Glimmer” and “Where the Wild Goose Goes” evoke a sense of longing and nostalgia while others such as “Chimes” reflect the inevitability of change and the bittersweet rhymes of memories. “As surely as” is an anthem on the ubiquitous power of gravity on us.

The poems are like different strokes of brushes on the canvas of poetic mindscape evoking different colours of human emotions,

“Blue is the sadness

when we say our goodbyes.”

Sometimes the promised humour has turned into a grave philosophic enigma,

“Past and future,

like the branches of a tree

lead to different paths,

sometimes the same regret.”

Ken Tomaro and Nolcha Fox have played on the subtlest of chords to bring out the most mesmerizing music in the world. They play with words with such charisma that ‘sharp words slice the sunlight into little parts of butter’.

This collection is for everyone whose wallet is full of bugs and cobwebs and for those who prefer to slouch on the couch with a ‘slab of apathy sandwiched between their pillows’, or someone infected with flue sharing every small piece of him or her with each cough to this world.  Ken and Tomaro have taken their readers through the rollercoaster of raw humour with an urgent poignancy of human passion, where the complexities of our decisions and the ultimate helplessness of our life left us to feel the eternity of a bottomless well.

Munmun “Sam” Samanta, Author of Yellow Chrysanthemum

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Review of Seesaw by Barbara Leonhard

Thank you for all the wonderful words of praise for Seesaw

Purchase Here (Nolcha’s Page) or Purchase Here (Ken’s Page)