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Don "Kingfisher" Campbell is the founder of Poetry People, offering poetry workshops for youth; past Board Member and Los Angeles Area Coordinator of California Poets In The Schools; advisory board member of the Writing Empowerment Project and Everyone’s Children; events coordinator for the 2002 Shouting Coyote Poetry Festival and the 2000 San Gabriel Valley Poetry Festival; publisher of the sensitivePOETRY website and the San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly print and online editions; writer for poetix.net and NEXT... magazine; and a leader of the Emerging Urban Poets and Pasadena Poets writing workshops. He recently received the 2002 Spirit Of Youth Award from the Artists For A Better World organization for his 16 years of sharing poetry and publishing students in schools, and Honorable Mention in the 2002 pathetic.org 9/11 Poetry Contest for his poem "9/12 Shadow". Don was also the recipient of the 2001 Charles Ferguson Prize from the Pennsylvania Poetry Society for his poem "A Slice Of Dead Tree" and a 1999 Poetry In The Windows III Honorable Mention by the Arroyo Arts Collective for his poem "Need Comfort? Try...". His poem "Break Up" will be appearing in the March 2003 Midnight Mind magazine (available at Tower Records) and "Story Of San Diego" in the inaugural Tebot Bach Anthology of California Poetry (coming this year). His poetry can also be regularly found in the Sunday 'U' section of the Pasadena Star News, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, and the Whittier Daily News; and the pathetic.org poets’ website. His works have additionally been published in numerous magazines and websites, such as: AIM, Bonfire, the California Poetry Calendar, Fingerprints, Indefinite Space, Lummox, Museum Of Poetry, Pegasus Dreaming, Poetic Voices, Poetry Changes People, Poetry Super Highway, Poets 4 Peace, Potpourri, Quien Soy, Red Dancefloor, Small Pond, Sound Publishing Co., Statement, Verve, Vol. No., and Wired Hearts. You can buy his latest chapbook "After Leaves: New Poems 2002" on Walrus Press; and the collections "Enter: Selected Poems 1999-2001" and the newly-published two-volume "More Than One Poem In My Life: Selected Poems 1981-1998" on amazon.com Or catch him live every Saturday at 7pm as "Kingfisher" co-hosts Saturday Night Poetry at the Java Zone Coffee Gallery in Pasadena, CA.

POEMS:

NEED COMFORT? TRY...

to walk in a supermarket
pushing a shopping cart
with store muzak wafting
fluorescent lights buzzing above
could be any major city
in the good ol' familiar US
see those bright friendly
boxes of Tide and All
pyramid families of fruits
rows of Campbell's and Cheetos
the ½ price bakery cart
the Cosmopolitan magazine woman
greeting me at the checkstand
then I'm stepping out
into the pole lamp
lit American Night
Volkswagen Vanagons
Honda Civics
Jeep Cherokees in the parking lot
turn my ignition key to return
to the California stucco apartment
I live in, whistling mindlessly
an America tune from my car radio
after I pull out
another car pulls in

Story Of San Diego

My wife, mi suegra and I sit
On the deck of an afternoon tour
Of the landmark harbor where white
Men first missioned indigenous lives
On this western half of the continent
Once unlabeled the four directions
We are shown the famous vessels
That fired on twentieth century possible invaders
A proud face beams about
The sparkling pacific water
You cannot even tell fathoms below lie
Detritus of five billion planetary revolutions
As distant skyline holds memories
Of wilderness in pastel-colored rooms
My family steps off the boat
To breathe the rest of our days limited
With small events chambered in temporary brains
That wait to join historical others in layered meaning

© 2003 Don Campbell

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