My life has been guided by the stars – the ocean – the light falling through trees. I have been on the Central Coast of California for 48 years. I’m a retired landscaper from San Luis Coastal Unified School District

 Kevin Patrick Sullivan’s books include, First Sight, The Space Between Things, Under Such Brilliance and Unimpaired. His poems have appear in such journals as Artlife, Askew, Solo, Solo Novo, Cafe Solo, Hummingbird, Lummox, Miramar ,Salt and several anthologies including, Last Call, Chinaski!, 1001 Nights Twenty years of Redondo Poets at the Coffee Cartel 1998 – 2017,  Sometimes In The Open- Poems From California’s Poets Laureate:

 He was the editor with his wife, Patti Sullivan of the anthology, Corners of the Mouth-A Celebration of Thirty Years at the Annual San Luis Obispo Poetry Festival. He was declared a “cultural asset” by the City Council of San Luis Obispo in 2001.
Kevin is a Poet Laureate Emeritus (2003) of  the City of San Luis Obispo. In 1984 he co-founded and continues to curate the Annual San Luis Obispo Poetry Festival. He co-Founded the Corners of the Mouth and curated that series for its 35 year run at Linnaea’s Café.

The Bridge to Passion

The bridge to passion
Is self-lit
Crossing with the match
Of humor
I burn my fingers
I wonder should 
I be laughing 

SLIGHTLY ASKEW

Perhaps it was the way I heard things and spoke the language
I could not roll my Rs and the only way I could was to 
Paint them in red on a black bowling ball and roll it down the alley
Then my Rs would roll all the way down to the pins with a strike
All the pins crashing and spinning with the force of my Rs  my
Ball painted with my Rs rolling back to me on the return 
Waiting for my next approach to that part of the alphabet
 
I had mastered most of my A, B, C’s, but certain parts of the 
Alphabet were tricky almost as if I was on a slope where 
I could not find my footing and my teachers were all the time
Telling me that I was slightly askew that they had to take too
Much time to grade my papers because my handwringing and
Spelling were on that downward slightly askew slope while my
Cursive was at the bottom of that not so slightly askew slope
Where unfortunately I remain today