The Cadillac Poems of Steven Forris Kimbrough

About the Book

Out of the experience of living in Europe as a youth, a tragic accident, a lengthy hospitalization and loss of a leg, The Cadillac Poems of Steven Forris Kimbrough offers a collection of the poetry of the late Steven Forris Kimbrough. With a mastery of multiple languages, a deep love of nature, an earnest concern for the poor and marginalized (especially Native Americans), a desire to love and be loved, and a deep faith, his poetry is filled with images, metaphors, and a keen understanding of human nature and emotion with which everyone can identify.

Born in Alabama in 1958, Kimbrough lived with his family in North Carolina and New Jersey and then moved with them in 1970 to Germany where his father sang opera and taught at Bonn University. He learned German very quickly while attending a Gymnasium (high school equivalent) and studied Italian as well. Through his extensive travels in Europe, he developed a deep interest in diverse peoples, languages, and cultures, which is reflected in his poetry. While he began writing poetry as a child, this skill blossomed in Germany, writing poems in English, German, and French.

The narrative in The Cadillac Poems of Steven Forris Kimbrough by his father, S T Kimbrough, Jr., weaves together genuine, inspiring, and moving poetry that will undoubtedly stir the hearts and minds of countless readers as they, too, journey into an unknown future.

“Nothing is hidden here, and nothing is excused. The result is a poetry that lingers in the mind as powerfully as wood smoke, or the sight of the first snowdrops in spring, or the sound of a cadence of music, heard in the heart long after the music has stopped.

“I commend these poems to all who believe, as I do, in the power of poetry to give form to the hopes and longings of human experience, and to all who find, in that form, a heightened perception of life itself.”

Richard Watson Emeritus Professor of English,

University of Durham, Durham, UK

About the Author

Steven Forris Kimbrough was born November 7, 1958 in Birmingham, Alabama. He began school in Princeton, New Jersey, and moved with his family to Germany when he was eleven years old. He attended both German and American schools in Bonn and excelled in his studies and athletics. After completion of High School, he entered Duke University, as did his brothers Timothy and Mark. With majors in German and Art Design, he graduated magna cum laude in 1980.

After graduation from Duke University, he became a resident of Cedar Grove, NC, where he lived until his death. Though he lost a leg as a youth, he learned to ski again and was a Cross Country Skiing medalist in the 1979 Handicap Olympic National Championships.

In 2010 Kimbrough died in an automobile accident. He was a gifted linguist, as his poems in English, German, and French illustrate, and an ardent supporter of Native American life and causes. He was also a talented artist, whose drawing of the fossil, Aegyptopithecus, a major link in the evolutionary chain, was published in the New York Times, Time Magazine, and Newsweek. His poem “Forty Days and Forty Nights” was set to music and published in the book of global songs and activities for children, Put Your Arms Around the World. Music was one of his passions and for about ten years he played bass guitar and wrote song lyrics in the group, One Real Band, with his brothers, Timothy and Mark, which became quite popular during their Duke University years.

His first love was family, especially his children, Dakotah and Savannah.

His poetry reflects a broad worldview and a keen sensitivity to nature, the marginalized, the physically challenged, one’s view of self and others, and the need for faith and love in the world today.