According to Continental Ferrari, downforce is a downward lift force on a vehicle accentuated by its aerodynamic features. In a car, downforce increases vertical force on the tires, increasing grip and thus allowing the car to travel faster. Downforce also applies to other vehicles—in a fixed-wing aircraft, for instance, downforce applied to the horizontal stabilizer allows for increased stability and pilot control.

In terms of poetry, it is that aspect that allows us to maintain our grip on our concept while reaching for higher performance and greater exposure; the thing that makes it fly right. When I decided to create an iguanaland exemplar for the fandango virtual archive, there was no doubt in my mind who would grace its pages: John Kilroy, fondly known as CyberClem.

As in performance racing, timing is a key element and in this case I came up short. When I looked online to get in touch with my old friend, I found the sad news that he had left this earth two years ago after a four year battle with cancer.

My initial reaction was a sense of extreme loss and some of that feeling will always be with me. The practical reality is that we came together on the first issue of iguanaland nearly 30 years ago. There are several dear friends of fandango that are no longer with us and many others I've lost touch with.

I turned 76 earlier this year and I am trying to finish my own body of work before the reaper arrives some time in the (hopefully) distant future. I've been fortunate to survive my own battles with cancer which you can read about here if you have an interest: life happens

I will talk more about the poetry of John Kilroy in the article about his books. The first link on the page is captain america. The first part is an interview and the second part, a race with the wind, includes four poems. "half a something ain't nothin" was in the first issue of iguanaland which was dedicated to him. The interview and the other three poems were in the third issue.

The second link, john kilroy, the poet evolves, originally appeared in 2000 in what was known as the resurrection issue (See history link for more information). This was the first time he allowed me to use his real name and he spoke of his upcoming book of poetry (TORQUE). Both of these features appear very nearly like the originals. There were a couple of minor html changes to support viewing on modern devices.

The last link is the article John wrote for Bonfire called "my fabled atomizer". (We did like our lower case laters back then!).

• Cyberclem
  "..it's the poet's duty to produce faith the way a stage magician yanks the silk off sudden tigers."
  
  
  • my fabled atomizer
    

There was also a link to his book in Bonfire's Bookmobile, a feature we dropped as hardly any of the links were current. His was worth reading, however:

Torque by John Kilroy (Cyberclem)

"...women will pull their cars over for men who failed most fabulously so they might hand out wonder simple and easy as net bags of oranges..."

All poems © John Kilroy

I was able to refurbish most of the rest of the Bonfire collection which can be accessed from the Fandango Virtual flash page.

Submissions for future editions of iguanaland are now handled telepathically by iggy lopez, our resident iguana. His column, iggy's fandango, can be accessed from iguanaland's homepage.

We have added new pages outlining the history of iguanaland and a list of fandango virtual contributors. The links to these can be found at the bottom of the iguanaland page.

Carrie Berry
editor,
iguanaland

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