Kevin Patrick Sullivan

Originally from Dearborn Heights, Michigan, Kevin settled on the central coast of California in 1975. In 1982 he self-published his first chapbook of poems and stepped out into the world of poetry. He is the author of several chapbooks including his new release UNDER SUCH BRILLIANCE, from Word Palace Press, 2012 and two full length collections, First Sight, Mille Grazie Press 1994, and THE SPACE BETWEEN THINGS, DeerTree Press, 2008. He has been published in such Literary journals as ArtLife, SOLO, Hummingbird, Solo Café, Solo Novo and Askew.

He has been included in the anthologies Sometimes in the Open, Poems from California's Poets Laureate, The Night Goes On All Night, Noir Inspired Poems and Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts, Vol.2. - Issue 2.

Kevin was a guest editor at SOLO PRESS, where he was the principal editor of SOLO CAFE Volumes 1 & 2. Kevin has been a featured reader, throughout the state of California. He has read at the Bristol Poetry Festival, Bristol, England as well as the BBC on Radio Bristol, hosted by Keith Warmington, The Paddington International Poetry Festival London, England, Cork and Galway, Ireland, Barcelona, Spain and Detroit, Michigan.

In 1984 Kevin co-founded the Annual San Luis Obispo Poetry Festival and the monthly reading series Corners of the Mouth at Linnaea's Café, in San Luis Obispo. In 2001 he founded the 501 (c) (3) Non-Profit Corporation , San Luis Obispo Poetry Festival/Corners of the Mouth and is the Executive and Artistic Director of both programs. In 2012 he

founded and is the Artistic Director of Poetry At The Bean, the Nautical Bean, 11560 Los Osos Valley Rd. San Luis Obispo.

Kevin has worked on and off as a poet/teacher with California Poets in the Schools since 1984. He has worked as a poet facilitator for the California Arts in Corrections at The California Men's Colony. In 2001 he was honored by the San Luis Obispo County Arts Council, receiving its Arts Recognition Award, for his work in the community supporting poetry and poets and was recognized by the San Luis Obispo City Council as a cultural asset to the city of San Luis Obispo.

In 2003 he was named by the New Times as one of their Volunteers of the Year and was proclaimed Poet Laureate by the City Council of San Luis Obispo. In 2007 he was awarded a $2,000 Art Inspires — Individual Artist Grant — for poetry from ARTS Obispo, the San Luis Obispo County Arts Council.

He works for San Luis Obispo Unified School District as a Grounds Keeper and lives in San Luis Obispo with his wife, the artist and poet, Patti Sullivan.

BATHING IN SACRED WATERS

I come to the mountain side
not far from the sycamore
there is a place where the water falls

It falls into a gentle pool
before it travels on
this water – that refreshes - that cleans

It is not my body
that I wash

I wash the dry brittle places
the distraught wounded places

Those places touched by
poverty – by disease -
those places touched
by thirst for blood and revenge

Those places where I just go along

Those places I can turn off
ignore

I wash my soul
       my only self

I prepare for a new beginning

To once again
         walk with compassion –

To walk with my sisters and brothers
on this our sacred world.  

Kevin Patrick Sullivan                           *Inspired by Georgia Sanford’s painting, “Bathing in Sacred Waters

ROBOT LOVE

I think of Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation

Of R2D2 and C3PO from Star Wars

Of the robot Robbie from Lost in Space but

I’m going all the way back to the Tin Man from

The Wizard of Oz – if I only had a heart

So there he was teaming up with a Scare Crow – a brain

A young woman with a dog – I want to go home –I just want to go home

And a cowardly lion – courage yea that’s all I need – courage

Notice I said teaming up because for me that is important

We cannot get there from here alone

There is something big as the sky inside you

A blue cloudless sky

An ocean

Inside you are the dreams I look for in my waking

I need your heart – your mind – your courage

If I’m ever to get home where all my life is sweet

Childlike and we are hitting our stride

You and me – all of us together

And maybe some love

Not robot love

But real love – Yea!

A real human love

One love

One planet

A blue cloudless sky inside you!

Yea!

 An ocean inside you!

Kevin Patrick Sullivan

BLUE TREES

I’m looking out of blue trees

That time of day early or late

The light is just right

For blue

The whole world opens

My heart knows so much

My mind tries to keep it locked

This is the daily struggle

Here in the trees

To look – really see

To feel what it is to be

Other

Or to close shut

Nothing but my life

My needs

Me – me – me.

Kevin Patrick Sullivan  *Inspired by a mixed media/rice paper painting 2001 by Richard Amend