Create your own Poetic Libretto (16 pages of poetry and photos) and send it to donkingfishercampbell@gmail.com. Your Poetic Libretto will be posted on this site and you will be invited to perform it at a Poetic Libretto Jubilee on Saturday Afternoon Poetry's Zoom channel early next year

Wednesday, October 2, 2024

Question Mystery by Don Kingfisher Campbell

 


a poetic libretto

Kingfisher

Question

Mystery

 

1 > Poetic Sol (1997)

2 > Fun-da-mental Quest-ions (11 23 2013)

3 > Ars Poetica (10 09 2015)

4 > Questioning the Masters (04 11 2016)

5 > Questions from The Broad (12 18 2016)

6 > MMT Love (08 11 2017)

7 > Olympic Questions (02 19 2022)

 

 

 

1 > Poetic Sol

 

sitting on steps

of the public library

 

the white stone steps

warmed by the sun

 

street traversed

by squealing car sounds

 

palm trees lined up

heads to the breeze

 

blue sky background

high above one blinding

 

eye shouting

action! 




2 > Fun-da-mental Quest-ions


when I breathe

is this how the wind

feels constantly exchanging

parts of spirit

 

when I sneeze

is this how a geyser

feels releasing jet

because it tickles

 

when I cough

is this how a blowhole

feels expelling

material caught inside

 

when I shiver

is this how an earthquake

feels for moments

spreading throughout the land

 

when I cry

is this how clouds

feel when they can’t

help but rain

 

when my heart flutters

is this how the earth

feels when we

test bombs

 

when I fart

is this how a fissure

feels letting out

pent-up gas

 

when I pee

is this how a waterfall

feels all

the time

 

when I shit

is this how an undersea vent

feels extruding mantle

onto sea floor

 

when I vomit

is this how a volcano

feels inside

erupting outward

 

when I swing my hand

is this how an asteroid

feels to hit

another orbiting body

 

when I spin

is this how a planet

feels rotating

every single day

 

when my mind blows

is this how a star

feels when it supernovas

in all directions

 

when I come

is this how God

felt in the big bang

… and afterward



3 > Ars Poetica

 

Like a painter

Capture the spectrum of surroundings

The red numbered calendar

The yellow banner with black letters

The green plastic footrest

The hanging blue panty

 

Like a sculptor

Feel the texture of objects

The round ebony headphones

The rainbow of tubular highlighters

The moon cone cobalt desk lamp

The smooth silver cellphone monolith

 

Like a musician

Use words to make music

She lies on the other side of the wall

Naked under percale sheets

In a dark room where the ceiling fan turns

Her voluptuous voice beckons me to come to bed

 

Like a dancer

Play with movement and space

I lean back in the swiveling chair

Crunch mandarin orange seeds in my mouth

Spit them into the bagged waste basket

Get up to waltz to the bedroom

 

As a lover

Put your feelings in

Until you can’t feel any more

I want to spend the rest of my life this way

Making love to description

Before, during, and after sleep

 


4 > Questioning the Masters

 

Shakyamuni, if I tip my fingertips to the ground will I achieve enlightenment?

Buddha, will there someday be a statue of me with only my feet remaining?

Ganesha, will my love of sweets make my stomach burst?

Guardian, am I a happy lion when it comes to protecting my tribe?

Winged Figure, can I support my cosmos with a hand?

Ribera, will my sense of touch help me learn the paragon of forms?

Saint Francis, must I pray for the concentration necessary to accept death?

Van Gogh, will foliage move me to see sky and hillside as relief?

Klee, is knowing another head better than seeking energy in geometry?

Munter, can I feel the essence of things in simple colors?

Warhol, can I manufacture art parallel to others who manufacture art?

Von Huene, can I say Karooooo to the daymare of a dress in the wind?

Hefferton, am I money I can decorate as I please?

Hurtados, can my body become a living work as well?

 


5 > Questions from The Broad

 

Did you forget to wash the dishes?

Wish a bouquet of shiny flowers was waiting for you upstairs?

Do you like to immerse yourself in comics?

How about other media?

Jackie O, Marilyn Monroe, Cowboy Elvis,

and more wanted men?

Would you find pleasure in saluting an artistic flag?

Lose yourself in blocks of primary colors?

Have you looked into the eyes of a single man?

Did his beard match the hair on his head?

Was his forward stare much like your own?

Have you ever dreamed of having three penises too?

Is the fire burning in your cabin intentional?

Why does a tear fall on your cheek?

Are you worthy of a crown as well?

When you glance in the mirror do you feel like a fake?

Remember when you could peer up at a dining table?

Ever vomited money, suckled the teats of society?

Does your jaw slacken at America in bright lights?

With the shadows of the oppressed including you?

Who doesn’t adore a nice bite in the neck?

How long have our heads been hanging upside down?

Why do we construct a god out of darkness,

Missing a hand, featuring only one good eye?

Is a dead fish on newspaper a true sign of our culture?

Do you crouch and ponder the meaning of what lies on the ground?

Would you create a poem for your tombstone?

Prefer it in running signage on the wall of a museum?

Where have you declared out loud your needs in two words or more?

Why does this wig have a hole in it?

Can a brain take in all the peering pupils, pursed lips, toothy grins?

Even once been lined up with friends under a gun?

Etched a message to aliens on beach sand?

Saluted helmeted leaders of history, because they were just actors?

Stand on the shore waiting for a ship to drop anchor?

Or simply think outside in your purple nailed open sandals?

Are you an exhibit walking past the side of a colossal building?

 


6 > MMT Love

 

in this

Magical Mystery Tour

of life

I’m your

Fool On The Hill

 

Flying

trying

to find a

Blue Jay Way

of loving

 

Your Mother Should Know

too

I Am The Walrus

when it comes to

Hello Goodbye

 

I’m wishing for

Strawberry Fields Forever

in our lives

a happy

Penny Lane

 

I declare

Baby You’re A Rich (Wo)Man

because

really

All You Need Is Love

 


7 > Olympic Questions

 

Ski jumper, you know you look like a flying

squirrel when you spring in the sky, don’t you

 

Luge (and Skeleton), how does it feel to be a bullet

rocketing down an open barrel (head first)

 

Alpine skiers, are you speeding down that hill like

someone who forgot to turn off their car alarm

 

Snowboard racers, do you enjoy being a gang

of four hopping over speed bumps made of snow

 

Cross country, why do I think of you as a human

Hot Wheel forced to row two sticks up snowy track

 

Speed skaters, you seem like a hip grandfather

clock when you swing your pendulum arm, no

 

Women’s hockey, two Chinese dragons guard

the net, is that a powerful mindset, or what

 

Skating pairs, do you love flinging

your partner in the air (I’ll wait)

 

Curling, who can scrape the smooth clean

kitchen floor of ice most efficiently

 

Slope style, do you think you live to twist and

twist and twist and twist again

 

Bobsled, isn’t this an amusement park ride

(sure looks like one)

 

Ski cross, you appear to start like a penguin

and turn into a shark with fins, right

 

Figure skaters, why is the Russian girl so

triple axel athletic over the others

 

Mass start, you begin together as a centipede,

yet seek to split apart for individual victory, yes

 

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How to Write Poetry by Jim Babwe