Richard Allen Taylor

Tour Guide

If you need a guide through the territories
of loneliness, take me. I know these lands,
speak the language, have wandered here for years.
I’m self-taught, too, too proud to ask for directions.
I drew the map, based on my own surveys and many
plunges into the jungle dark, the deserts beyond,
the endless dunes and empty seas without birds
or ships. I have taken copious notes, filled
books with longitudes and latitudes.
I don’t claim to be the foremost
expert, but
I’ve learned the geography of One
and its bordering territories: solitude, single,
solo, island, isolation. I’ve studied cabin fever
and tinkered with remedies, all of which work
partially or not at all. My advice? Whenever
you think you’re hungry, treat it as a need
for company. Go out for a cheeseburger,
talk to someone who will listen and take notes.
Ask them to repeat it back to you: two patties,
well done, American, hold the onions.

Richard Allen Taylor is the author of four poetry collections including Letters to Karen Carpenter and Other Poems (2023) from Main Street Rag Publishing Company. Taylor’s poems, articles and reviews have appeared in Aeolian Harp, Flying South, Pinesong, Rattle, and Sheila-Na-Gig, among others. Several have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. He formerly served as review editor for The Main Street Rag and founding co-editor of Kakalak. After retiring from a business career, he earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte. He resides in Greer, South Carolina.

“Many of those poems dealt with death, grief, and recovery, and I feel like I’ve said all I want to say about those subjects, at least for the time being. Now I’m marking my sixth year of widowerhood and find myself intrigued with the condition of loneliness as a rich and varied source of poems, and I’m embracing that. I’m especially excited to see ‘Tour Guide’ in Litmosphere as I consider the poem to be a sort of flagship of a series I’m writing.”