Review of Sky Sex + Car Trouble

Don Kingfisher Campbell’s work in 2008 could often be described as meditative, soothing, always witty, always rooted in natures of Man. However as ’08 comes to a close he goes out with a bang in his latest: SKY SEX + CAR TROUBLE. This work is ripe with paradox, tension, drama; but in a compassionate gesture (to let us off the hook upon completion of reading it) he ends with a self-effacing stanza likening him self to the early 90’s phenomenon/parody: Vanilla Ice. Kind of bizarre but Don is also very eccentric and one truth can be said about his work as a poet: he takes risks, emotional ones too. Other conclusions to his poems can mysteriously break your heart, make you laugh out loud deep from the gut or ponder silently slowly their magnificent metaphysical weight. The work has its relief; the poem 18 TOY DEATHS is awfully cute and funny typifying the absurdity of children dying; in this case death by toy and play. Those that know some of the man or want to know more of the man will find endearing autobiographical accounts of his relations with females fascinating in his: 49 UP, LUCKY SEVEN and LXXVII.

RED SKY MOON (NOODLES AND ICE CREAM) seems to find the poetry in a plate of food and within it a portending apocalyptic doom. SCALE!! : is as flawless and irreproachable as the ingredients of its content: flowers in bloom. And it would be impossible to merit his poem PEOPLE sufficiently in this allotted space; let it be accurate enough to say that it is an exhibition of outlandish skill and a must read for students of experimental poetry. It is also clear that it isn’t difficult for him to hit with a homerun line like: leaves dancing with air; the final line of the poem: POETRY IN THE PARK.

And, in conclusion, what Don does best is win the audience over—taking the reader or listener on a journey; so that once his rider, his observer, is ready to take a self-shot Polaroid of his chapbook next to heart, or lock it away like a princess; he reminds us in IF I WAS A POEM with closing lines:

But I am a poem
So the thoughts of us now are
In the molecules of the cosmos

To consider: what is possessiveness, what is attachment in the context of the great Unity? Well, we are human; we like our cars, we like our sex, we like it as ours. So while you free those toe nails; you may want to conversely lock away Don’s chapbooks; if for no other reason than the Museums may be looking to buy them someday. And just like this chapbook at times, that may seem funny and cute; but it is no joke!

—The Walrus

* * * * *

SKY SEX + CAR TROUBLE

28 New Poems composed in October and November 2008:

AFTER A MORNING RAIN
ANOTHER DAY OF THE DEAD
CAR TROUBLE
CATALINA AND WASHINGTON
18 TOY DEATHS
49 UP
GOOD THING IT ISN'T ALIVE
IF CALIFORNIA WAS THE WORLD
IF I WAS A POEM
LILAC
LUCKY SEVEN
LXXVII
MORNING MOON
NIGHT
NIGHT OF THE BAKED POTATO
ONLY MINUTES
PEOPLE
POETRY IN THE PARK
PRISONERS
RED SKY MOON (NOODLES AND ICE CREAM)
SCALE
SCALE!!
SKY SEX
SKY SHOW
SOLVANG
SOMETIMES I FEEL LIKE AN ANT
SUPER OBAMA!
WE SHARE THE SAME BIRTHDAY SO

$5

Order online at http://paypal.com/ by selecting Send Money and directing payment to kingfisher1031@charter.net then just wait by the ol' mailbox.

DON KINGFISHER CAMPBELL, listed on Poets & Writers, is the founder of POETRYpeople youth writing workshops, publisher of the San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly, leader of the Emerging Urban Poets writing and Deep Critique workshops, and host of Saturday Afternoon Poetry in Pasadena, California. Mr. Campbell has taught Creative Writing in the Upward Bound program at Occidental College and been a Guest Teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District for 24 years.

Don is the recipient of a 1st Honorable Mention in the 2008 Grandmother Earth poetry contest, an Honorable Mention in the League Of Laboring Poets March 2007 contest, the National Writers Association's Los Angeles Chapter Author Of The Month Certificate, the Artists For A Better World Spirit Of Youth Award, an Honorable Mention in the Pathetic.org 9/11 poetry contest, the Pennsylvania State Poetry Society's Charles Ferguson Prize, and an Arroyo Arts Collective's Poetry In The Windows Prize.

Kingfisher’s poetry has been recently published in the anthologies Undetectable, Phantom Seed, Vox Journal, Behold The Pirate Pig, Hudson View Poetry Digest, Mudpuppy, Looking Out Of Pasadena, Prism Review, Looking Out Of Alhambra, Free-Wheeling, Prism Quarterly, Open Windows, Poetry And Cookies, Dirt, Cosmic Brownies, Three Chord Poems, Midnight Mind, So Luminous The Wildflowers, and One Drop To Be The Color Black; and is viewable on the internet at Hot Metal Press, Prism Review Poetry Sleepover, Poets Lane, Poets Express, The League Of Laboring Poets, The Stone Table Review, Six Little Things, Turbula, The Barricade, Tattoo Highway, Poetry Midwest, River Walk, New Verse News, Poets Against The War, Hiss Quarterly, Poetic Diversity, Edifice Wrecked, Call To Arts, Lunarosity, Writer's Hood, Poetic Voices, MindFire Renewed, Poetry Super Highway, Wilmington Blues, Bonfire, Wired Art From Wired Hearts, and Poetz websites.

His first book of poetry "Enter", reviewed as "pithy, trenchant, raw with life", was published by iUniverse Press and is available on Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com, etc. You can also find him interviewed on Litrave.com and Poetix.net. And now, he's featured on a CD titled Poems From Perkins Alley and a video on YouTube through Poetry.LA. Want a poet in your classroom, library, bookstore, coffeehouse, or event? Please email: poetrypeople@charter.net