Poems and Rhyme of a Heart Unkind
by Kalynn Campbell
Dark poems and prose of unrequited love and loneliness
Take an emotional ride with the vulnerable heart of artist/writer, Kalynn Campbell, as it enters the tempestuous and callous world of “She”. Written at the end of a volatile love affair with a married woman, the poems and prose of SHE OF THORN tell the story of a love-in-vain enslavement to a cruel ineffectual heart. The book also reflects the author's personal struggle with AvPD.
Over 200 poems, 128 pages, illustrated by the author - ISBN 978-0692407431
-Signed!-
WE ARE PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE
THE AUTHOR-SIGNED 'EARLY EDITION'
IS SOLD OUT!
THE AUTHOR THANKS EVERYONE FOR THEIR SUPPORT!!!
--->Kindle and paperback editions are now AVAILABLE here on Amazon.com <---
COMING SOON:
LAST RITES
NEW POETRY BOOK
from Kalynn Campbell
- SHE OF THORN ranked #17 on Amazon's '100 Best Sellers: Love poems' April 20th
- SHE OF THORN ranked #5 on GOOGLE GOODREADS 'Indie Poetry' list April 17th
THANK YOU FOR OVER 600 ENTRIES IN THE GOODREADS AUTHOR-SIGNED BOOK GIVEAWAY AND CONGRATULATIONS TO THE WINNERS!
AND THANK YOU ALL FOR THE FIVE-STAR RATINGS ON AMAZON!
PRAISE FOR SHE OF THORN
The poems of SHE OF THORN are painfully brutal and viscerally raw yet at the same time tender in a sullen 'on the deathbed' kind of way. Many of the poems rhyme which makes them accessible. They speak of a grieving heart with such command that you'll find yourself reaching for the Kleenex box again and again. Every poem is complex and well written. The author definitely has talent.
Now as a whole, as a book…
How many poetry books leave you wanting to know the nuances of every detail of every word printed within it's covers? For me, this book did just that. This is a very unusual poetry book. I not only found it heart wrenching and skillfully written, but it personally pulled me into the world of 'she' (as the author names her) and I suddenly found myself a voyeurist peeking into a window while someone contemplated suicide over a lost love. It was terribly sad but I couldn't tear my eyes away, I had to keep watching.
From the start we know 'she' is real. The author says in the introduction that 'she' is married and the two had a very long affair. She hurt him badly. Very deeply. Every poem attests to this. Like a line of witnesses at a murder trial, each poem recounts the circumstances surrounding the murder of the authors heart. And like witnesses, each poem has a distinct voice, each telling the tale of the murder as it was perceived. With 200 poems all centering around the same theme it would seem like the book would get monotonous. Not true of SHE OF THORN. It is almost like reading a novel in the sense that the story plot (poems) shift every time you think it's about to hit a repetitive groove.
But back to 'she'. She continues to fascinate me long after I've put the book down. Who IS she? Has she read the book? Does the author ever speak to her? What must it feel like to be the she of this book? More importantly, how could she do this? The author obviously loved her in that rare 'Romeo and Juliet' way, the kind of love we all dream and hope for yet never quite achieve. Did she blow her chance for a part in the love of the century? These are things I am left wondering and that's a testament to the power of SHE OF THORN. I know I will find myself returning to 'she's' world again and again, it is a book I feel lucky to have found. SHE OF THORN is not only recommended, it is crucial reading.
- Jenny Webber
Author, 'MALICIOUS LOVE & OTHER SWEET THINGS"
The best poetry is not a choice, it is a visceral need. It is not written because the poet wants, but because the poet must. ‘She of Thorn’ is beautifully painful to read: the words come straight from the deepest regions of the poet’s heart, they feel like they have exploded onto the page, staining it with the very essence of emotions that are too strong and real to be left untold. Coming from Kalynn Campbell's struggle with Avoidant Personality Disorder, a condition that makes you feel inadequate in social situations, so you avoid all contact with people (and haven’t we all had moments when we just can’t face the looks of others, their faces, their laughter?), these poems have in their shape and layout the sound of loneliness echoing on the page: the lines are short, leaving most of the page blank like a soundboard for feelings; each line invites the reader to stop, think, and, what’s more… feel!
From the very beginning, the She protagonist of the book, the She who owns the speaker’s heart and dominates his thoughts is presented as an impossibility:
‘She of past
in silence
creeps’
… We have to stop and think, this is an image both beautiful and eerie; She steps into the scene so slowly, almost demanding attention, and yet we are told from the very beginning there is no future for them, and within the beauty of the sound of the words, she is presented with a disturbing touch as ‘creeping’ and leaves us powerless spectators of our emotions, now ruled by She, whom we may never meet, but still are bound to love. The impossibility of the relationship becomes more poignant as we turn the pages, and in ‘The Already Gone’ we read:
‘of mine She is not
our future not long
in briefness I kiss
the already gone’
The complex vortex of need for love fighting against the void of lost, or never had, hope is created by the contrasting imagery carried by split oxymorons, as if in this very split resides the unbridgeable distance that haunts the whole connection like a shadow we cannot rid ourselves of.
The imagery in ‘She of Thorn' has a metaphysical quality: the poet draws together images from very distant places and areas of experience, for example, in ‘She of Gem’, we find that, instead of the commonplace comparison of blue eyes to the sky, we are presented with an original drawing together of sky and legs, bound by the washed out colour of old jeans:
'under sky
of tattered blue
cloud-bleached
jeans slide
past sun-licked
curves
and buckled knees.
The emotions are more vivid thanks to the poet’s use of a range of rhythms and melodies, from highly lyrical lines of one words, to poetry in prose; emotions speak to us at different paces, sometimes relaxing, sometimes contracting, if I had to compare this book to music, it would not be to the predictable and repetitive experience of a pop album, where songs imitate each other with no surprise, but to a Wagner opera, where slow, almost inaudible movements turn into powerful storms.
Thus, in ‘Why’ the question shouts on the page as it must have haunted the poet’s mind from morning to dusk, a single, unanswerable question:
'Why
must I
remember
a love...
She forgot’
In the piece ‘The Connection’, the rational mind seems to offer a glimpse of an opportunity - as poetry becomes intense prose, only to melt again into poetry at the end.
‘She of Thorn’ is an outstanding collection of poetry worthy of recognition: it is honest and incredibly well-written, it doesn’t compromise meaning to find form nor form to find meaning; the two come together in a unique voice that will stay with you long after you have read it.
-Adriano Bulla, The Literature Blog UK
This compilation of poems holds a deeper story than a normal 300-page novel would contain. You see the story begin and the journey through time until the very end where the author is alone and reflects on the past. I actually can sympathize and empathize with the author. I once loved someone who was just as broken as I was. Instead of realizing I was giving and giving, I was truly left behind with nothing at all and then some.
For writers, this could be a guide for you to read in order to grasp the importance of personal experience and emotions in the things you write. For those who have recently gone through a breakup, pick this up and devour it's contents. And for those who are looking for new poems to real-time is the one for you! Great book!
-Cayce Hrivnakon
I WAS WITNESS...
I happened to meet the author, Kalynn Campbell, right after he broke up with the woman the poems are written about so I know the inside story of "she" very well. I was witness to the sad, almost spooky metamorphosis Kalynn went through as despair, pain of loss, anger and emptiness all set in. Being personally involved in the story, I tried hard to ignore the poems he began writing on a daily basis. I saw them as just his way of displacing pain onto paper.
And now I find myself holding a book. A book I’m afraid to open, as if it’s a real life Pandora's box.
I flip though it - the first page, then the second... No, it drips with too much pain. I put the book away.
Smoke and thoughts fill the air... For hurting him so badly I hate ‘she’.
The book calls to me. I go back to reading and his words draw me in. It’s dark out as I finish, I didn’t notice the sun had gone down, the poems had me mesmerized. I no longer hate ‘she’, I am now hopelessly jealous (I think any girl who reads SHE OF THORN will experience a bit of this).
How I wish I was someone’s "she" and they dedicated such powerful heartbreaking words to me. How I wish I had touched someones soul as deeply as ‘she’ touched his, to be the importance of someones midnight cry.
If I was asked to choose between a stable sugary love story relationship, one with a ‘forever after’ ending - or an unpredictable, future-less, intense love story with an outcome of soul wrenching pain (not even getting a final "goodbye”), I would not think twice. What the author and ’she’ had, what the words show, what the poems say, is that the deep intense love, no matter how it ends, is forever. The author will take ‘she’ to his grave.
And years after that, people will flip though the book - the first page, then the second... and say, “no, it drips with too much pain” and they will put the book away.
But through a cloud of smoke they will find themselves reading it again and again.
One of the saddest love stories ever written.
-Evgeniya M.
Horrifically beautiful
I am not normally a fan of poetry. Usually it has to be something like "the Charge of the Light Brigade" to get my attention. But on a whim I took a look at "She of Thorn" and I am so happy I did. Kalynn has written something so horrifically beautiful that it has promoted him to a something I have never had before. My Favorite Poet. I cannot say it changed my life, but this collection of poetry came close. I strongly recommend you read it. It is magnificent.
-Hayden D. Linderon
FOR THOSE OF US WHO HAVE LOVED AND LOST...
I have picked up a recent habit of reading poetry books that express the mood I'm currently in, and Kalynn Campbell's book was a terrific read for me as I could immediately connect to his deeply emotional and highly evocative lines. I could feel his pain from a relationship that's gone sour, as I have felt that pain several times in my own life.
I am presenting one of Kalynn's most powerful poems here, so that you can see for yourself what this collection is all about:
I BURIED HER
I buried her in the field today
there was no sun
there was no rain
the sky as She, dark gray
I buried her in the field today
She is not near flowers
She is not near weeds
her grave is lost
like She left me
I buried her in the field today
I spoke no words
I had nothing to say
I simply did as She
I walked away
Whoever the woman is, she must have been quite something, to inspire such amazing poetry. The guy is a real talent. For Kalynn, all I can say, from personal experience is – it's better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all!
-Ranger
HEARTBREAK DOESN'T GET ANY MORE INTENSE THAN 'SHE OF THORN'
I recently broke up with a married woman. It was painful and I wanted to wallow a little so I did a search for books on the subject and came across SHE OF THORN. All I can say is DAMN! The author has one up on me, his pain pours off the pages with such intensity that I felt like a poser with my pain. I want to buy the author a night of drinks and tell him any girl who walks aways from that kind of passion is simply not worth sh*t. I’m not a big fan of poetry but I don’t really see this book as poetry, it’s more like a volume of lyrics from the greatest heart stabbing band in the world. Nothing comes close in terms of pain, NOTHING! I am now a huge admirer of Kalynn Campbell. Screw her dude, a million girls out there want what you lay down. But don’t stop writing about ‘she’, it’s one amazing read! Five bloody stars!
-Jeff Lynd
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