So here was another collection to start compiling. Mostly mail ordering. Bordering schizoid.

The only problem with mail ordering things was that I could never forget I had mail ordered the things. Nice.

Our correspondence was sporadic but he would send me whatever new books he had coming out.

For free?

New, new, new. They kept coming. And I kept writing.

Here's the Beatles post card he must have sent me in November 1995.

It says:

"YOUR WORDS ARE ENDLESS IN MY HEART'S APPLE . . . THANK YOU. HERE'S ME LATELY: BUSY, TIRED, DAD, JUICED. THINKING ABOUT BUYING A NEW COMPUTER, WRITING AND RE-MIXING OTHER'S POEMS, ON ACID OPENING FOR JIM CARROLL IN FRONT OF 200 PEOPLE . . . 'CONNIE CHUNG! CONNIE CHUNG!!' FUCKIN' FREAKIN' AND PEAKIN' HAVIN' FUN JUGGLIN' MY WORDS W/ OTHER PEOPLE'S HEADS . . . I'VE SEEN LITTLE OF YOUR WORK - I'D LIKE TO SEE MORE - HOW'S SCHOOL. OR WORK. OR LIFE. DEATH? WHAT'S UP W/ STOVEPIPER?"

STOVEPiPER was an anthology I published. It cost me four grand. Mostly poetry.

Poetry cost me four grand.

That's what interested me most about Kevin Sampsell: the poetry. The poetry of it. Even the short stories of Kevin Sampsell were poetry.

I was interested. I was into it. So?

LET'S START SOMETHING SPECIAL

WORDS OF THE ETERNAL CON ARTIST

HEAD

13 GIRLS ON FIRE

ACID DENTAL WORK

HAIKU YOU

FAMILY VAL-U-PAK

LITERARY SNOBS

BEAUTIFUL TEEN-AGERS UNITE

AWKWORD

MAGICK TIMEBOMB

All of the above is what I would call Kevin Sampsell American Poetry.

All of the above is what I would call Kevin Sampsell American Poetry.

All of the above is what I would call Kevin Sampsell American Poetry.

Check!

And all of it came out before 1995.

Better check!

Kevin Sampsell was new. It was new to me. He was new to me.

I didn't know you could do what he did. And kept doing.

Keep going!

I didn't know you were allowed.

Tell it!

What was so interesting about the weird sex and the love.

Weird sex?

The love . . .

I'm starting to feel the love!

"YOU WANT BLOOD?" he wrote to me on 5-16-96. "AT WORK," he wrote under the date. He ran a coffee kiosk at the time. "YOU GOT IT..."

He wrote this letter on the back of a solar yellow flyer listing titles that were then available from Future Tense Books. Fifteen titles were available. Looked like some weird shit that was available. Future Tense Books was also selling black and purple "Corporate Poetry Still Sucks" t-shirts for ten bucks. And Country Music Haiku posters--18 haiku by Kevin Sampsell, each named after a different country music singer. The posters were two bucks each or free with a book order. I got mine with a book order. Signed.

The poster said he was a disk jockey on a country music radio station in Spokane, Washington, and his chapbook 13 Girls on Fire was banned in Eugene, Oregon, and all across Canada. His letter says:

"YOU WANT BLOOD? YOU GOT IT.

YOU WANT SEX? YOU GOT IT.

YOU WANT FOOD? YOU GOT IT.

YOU WANT A LARGE RUBBER SHIMMERING BLUE SLIGHTLY LEAKING...
UH. EXCUSE ME...

HELLO MIK(E) -

I WAS JUST BRUSHING UP ON MY SHOCK POETRY THERAPY. WHEN I GOT YOUR POSTCARD LAST WEEK I DIDN'T KNOW WETHER (MOSTLY CLOUDY) TO LAUGH OR CRY - I ENDED UP DRIVING INTO A PET STORE FOR THE SHEER THRILL OF IT, JUST BECAUSE.
I'M WRITING A DECENT AMOUNT AND JUST PUBLISHED THIS STRANGE RED THING - ALSO RUNNING A READING SERIES - GETTING READY TO PUBLISH LOADS OF PRODUCT - SEND YOU MY NEW CHAP IN A MONTH WHEN IT IS BORN. SOMEBODY TOLD ME THAT RICHARD SPECK WAS IN A DRUG-ENHANCED PORNO SHOT SOMEWHERE IN HIS PRISON - I HEAR HIS BREASTS ARE BIG LIKE AN OLD LADY. HORMONES. NOW I WANT TO GO TO PRISON! ANXIOUS TO HEAR WHAT YOU'VE BEEN DOING - WILL YOU CONTRIBUTE TO SOCIETY EVER AGAIN? PIPE STOVIN'? DRUNK VIGILANTE? POP SINGER MASK? COUNTRY SINGER FOOTBALL UNIFORM? I SPEND COUNTLESS MINUTES TALKING TO YOU IN MY HEAD -
LT. CHIEF,
KEVIN SAMPSELL"

Cut to a commercial!