M. Kettner: 1947–2013

Seattle, Washington

May 11, 1947 – July 27, 2013

Michael Edward Kettner was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan on May 11, 1947. He was the fourth and youngest child of Robert and Geraldine Kettner. Michael started writing seriously in his early 20s, a passion that lasted his whole life. Michael met and married Kathleen McGin in 1979, and he and Kathleen moved to Seattle during their first year of marriage. They ran several businesses, including McKettner publishing in the mid 1980s, which published Catalyst, a poetry and arts publication distributed free of charge. The publication and company lasted until 1997 when Michael and Kathleen parted ways. Michael met Crystal Kiley in 2003 and they spent the last decade of his life together. Michael spent his final years writing poetry and working on two novels that are not yet published. Michael wrote daily until a second stroke, on April 6, 2012, robbed him of the ability. He died peacefully after a long illness on July 27, 2013, at the age of 66, in Seattle, Washington. Michael is survived by his sister Sue, his son Raymond, and his partner Crystal Kiley.

From Haiku Zasshi Zō anthology, Winter/Spring 1989:

        transient

        sleeping on a bench,

        penny in the rain

From Bear Creek Haiku #15:

        new year/pencil sharpener needs emptying

        nothing to do/gum gone flat

        in the motel/your opened blouse

        cricket/record player not rejecting

From Infrared: Poems from Another Spectrum:

        dawn/a can of spilled paint

        evening sun/a quarter painted red sinking into a sea of coins

        stark escarpment

        heart a bag of rocks

        ocean a distant pool table

From Full Penny Jar (Port Charlotte, Florida: Runaway Spoon Press, 1989):

        Brussels sprouts       the sea turning to autumn

        haircut:        convertible

                  with its

                          top down

        quiet afternoon

                       at home,

                  full penny jar

        time up!

        parking meter

        flips me the bird

        moment/rainbow in a soap bubble

        juxtaposition/tailpipe in a flower bed

        persistent cough/old sports car

        dusk          the spray-painted traffic sign

From (moments) (Seattle: emPo Publications, 1988):

        daybreak               fencepost

        cloudy sunset . . .

                     wrinkle

               beneath her nipples

        eclipse/coroner’s black suit

        death/the silent echo of the ravine

The following are all of M. Kettner’s poems to appear in Brussels Sprout, from V:1, May 1988; VI:1, January 1989 (two poems); VII:1, January 1990; and X:1, January 1993 (two poems):

        waiting to come in

                      cat beneath a parked car

        student union . . .

        on a discarded napkin

        someone’s calculus

        tide turns,

                gull dips

                        its wing

        through holly trees/ a funeral procession

        long illness/ weeds in the flowerbox

        three months pregnant     moon a crescent